Geoff Parling responds to viral shoving incident involving Craig Doyle as he claims he needs to ‘protect’ his players
Geoff Parling responds to viral shoving incident involving Craig Doyle as he claims he needs to 'protect' his players
Leicester Tigers boss Geoff Parling has responded to a viral incident which occurred on the Villa Park pitch prior to the Slater Cup match on Saturday.
The former England lock was shown confronting TNT presenter Craig Doyle after fellow presenter Liam McDevitt had attempted a kick at the posts.
Doyle told the former footballer to kick the goal as an initiation for appearing on the show for the first time. This incensed Parling, who then shoved Doyle and shouted: “It’s not f***ing on, get off the pitch, it’s not f***ing on”, leaving the duo to quickly exit the field looking like naughty schoolkids,
Following the match, Parling spoke to the media about the incident, stating his need to “protect my players” as his reason for the outburst.
“The producer from TNT has just come and apologised to me,” the 42-year-old said.
“They had something set up that wasn’t passed with anybody without our knowledge. I’m very wary, we need to protect my players, and certainly balls flying towards our players that could go anywhere, where there’s an injury risk, and I’m obviously not going to be happy.”
Leicester’s day at Villa Park
Fortunately for Parling and his team, the TNT incident didn’t cause any lasting issues, as they went on to beat Gloucester handsomely, securing a bonus point within the first 16 minutes.
With the game all but secured by the half, the Tigers did take their foot off the gas, allowing the Cherry and Whites to mark a more respectable final scoreline.
“For the very, very best, teams will keep up the intensity for 80 minutes,” said Parling post-match. “So that’s our challenge now.
“We are doing some good things at the start of that game. Could we really put our foot on the throat and nail down.”
Leicester are now sitting in third place in the PREM table, behind Bath and Northampton, with Exeter Chiefs just a point below after enjoying a much-improved season. There’s a large gap between fourth and fifth, with Bristol sitting seven points below after Saturday’s loss to Harlequins.
