Leicester Tigers coach Geoff Parling revealed the extent of a chaotic travel build-up after his side’s Investec Champions Cup defeat to the Stormers.
Despite a hugely disruptive week, an understrength Leicester pushed the Stormers all the way at Cape Town Stadium before eventually going down 39-26.
“We had to split the lads into groups of three when we came here, and it disrupted our preparation and performance without a doubt,” Parling said.
“Three lads came on one flight straight here, 10 other lads flew to Johannesburg, and the next morning the rest of the lads flew to Johannesburg as well. So we’ve had a very disruptive week. Some guys fell ill before the game, too. Prop Will Hurd put in a great performance after he’d been sick.
“To put our week into perspective, we had a 51-hour round trip. We went to the airport in England to fly out at 6pm on Monday, and at half past midnight, we found out the flight was fully cancelled. We went back to the hotel.
“I made it known to the EPCR that I wasn’t happy with the travel schedule. There is no need to fly to Johannesburg when there are direct flights from Cape Town to Heathrow. This wasn’t handled well.”
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Yet Parling was adamant the disruption was no excuse, praising his players’ resilience against a powerful Stormers outfit.
“This performance showed that we can be adaptable. We had no excuses and nobody moaned — we made the best of the situation,” he said.
“During the week and in the build-up, we didn’t want to make excuses. For us to step up as we did, I’m really proud of the effort.”
Photo: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images
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