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Geoff Parling fully switched on for Premier return

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As soon as Leicester Tigers lock Geoff Parling pressed the delete button on his Sky Box, he began the process of moving on from England's Six Nations defeat in Cardiff.

By his own admission, that will be some task having got so close to the Holy Grail of a Grand Slam – and come away with nothing.

But the 29-year-old is a straight-talking and pragmatic second-rower who will be totally switched on when he puts his Leicester Tigers hat back on for the first time in over two months at Exeter this afternoon.

"We got a chance to win a Grand Slam and to lose it was devastating," he said.

"The build-up and the atmosphere was amazing but I absolutely hated the game because we lost.

"We were still winning the championship at half-time and to lose from there was gutting.

"Afterwards, I got home, sat down, pressed play and, as soon as the 80 minutes were up, I pressed delete. I always have to watch games, even if I don't want to.

"It was difficult to take but you have to get over it. That is sport. You have to move on and work towards putting yourself and your team in good positions again."

Parling returned to the sanctuary of his own bed, home and nappy changing for just the eighth night in the last eight weeks and quickly began to turn his mind to club matters.

His immediate concern was getting back to grips with the Leicester line-out calls after spending February and March working with England ones.

"I gave Richard Blaze (Tigers' line-out coach) a call on Sunday night and it takes time to get through all of the calls again.

"As soon as you have done it, it starts to sink it but you need to run a few calls and go through it all first. You just get on with it."

Tigers face some critical games in the remainder of the season.

"There are five league games left and a quarter-final of the Heineken Cup," said Parling. "We have got to make sure that there is a hell of a lot more than those six games left. The pressure is on us to get into the top two. We have to be more clinical and close out games.

"Away at Toulon, it will be a big occasion and we have to make the most of that opportunity.

"Last year, we let ourselves down on the big occasion at Ulster in Europe and the Premiership final. This season, the big one was Toulouse at home – and we won that. We need to keep on winning those big games."

Geoff Parling fully switched on for Premier return


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