Leicester Tigers will begin crunch talks with fly-half George Ford and lock Geoff Parling in the coming weeks to decide their future.
Ford was said to have signed with Bath Rugby next season according to an article in the Daily Mail on Sunday, whilst Parling has been linked with Gloucester as a replacement for France-bound Jim Hamilton.
Ford - the 2011 IRB Junior Player of the Year - has struggled for opportunities behind England fly-half Toby Flood and would link up with his father Mike, Bath's defence coach, if he were to move to The Rec.
Having signed lock Sebastian de Chaves from Mont-de-Marsan according to a tweet from the player over the weekend, rumours of Parling's exit have continued to spread.
"George Ford is a player who has been at this club for all of his short professional career to date and we think he is a player with lots of potential," said CEO Simon Cohen to the Leicester Mercury.
"We would like him to stay. We have met regularly with him and his agent but we are getting closer to a time where a decision needs to be made in order that we can plan for next season."
"We would like Geoff to stay. We have made what we think is a very good offer and he knows that he will be very well looked after here if he has any further injury problems.
"This is also the best place for him to be to continue his England career.
"He will need to weigh that up against any offer that is financially better.
"Although we don't want to put any pressure on him to make a decision just yet, there will be a point at which we need to know in order to plan."
Comments
lawynd says...
sanka69 - so that's what you chaps call it, 'entertaining'. Admittedly I'm biased as a former back-rower, but all that running around flinging the ball about willy-nilly doesn't look like fun to me! ;)
Posted 15:45 09th January 2013
sanka69 says...
@lawynd Good comeback, although our pack has been a bit beefier this season apart from against Leicester!!! Just thought he might like to play entertaining rugby for a change!!
Posted 09:27 09th January 2013
TVaddict says...
I don't see why Parling would want to leave as he's getting plenty of first team action for the big games, but also time off for the lesser game as Leicester have so many options for second row. Perfect combination, plus he's playing in a team that is always playing the best in Europe and making the premiership final.
Ford is a different case. He's not getting the game time he needs to develop, so a move to somewhere like Northampton would be very beneficial for him as well as for them.
Posted 15:21 08th January 2013
lawynd says...
I'm not sure Geoff would 'love' playing in a pack eternally going backwards, sanka69.
Posted 14:51 08th January 2013
sanka69 says...
C'mon Geoff, come down to the Shed you will love it at Kingsholm! Would be a great replacement for Hamilton for us fingers crossed!
Posted 09:18 08th January 2013
rugby_rockstar says...
Having spent a few seasons dreading any injuries to Toby Flood because it meant having Staunton at 10, I hope Leicester do their best to keep hold of Ford. He's not the finished article but Cockeril's front row priority signing strategy is not a perfect model by any stretch of the imagination. The Scrum is just too open to interpretation to be a cast iron match winner. You spend millions on 6 world class front rowers and it smacks of having all your eggs in one basket. Try hard to keep George Ford Leicester. One dimensional rugby teams are quickly found out.
Posted 08:46 08th January 2013