Leicester Tigers scrum coach Dan Palmer resigns after Dan McKellar’s exit
Dan Palmer has followed his Australian compatriot Dan McKellar out of the exit door at Leicester Tigers - Getty Images/Malcolm Couzens
Leicester Tigers have announced that Dan Palmer, the scrum coach, has resigned from his role with the club following the departure of Dan McKellar.
Telegraph Sport revealed on Saturday that McKellar was set to leave Leicester after one season as head coach, with senior players and board members having not bought into McKellar’s vision for the next campaign.
Palmer has left his role with Leicester, who said he was “unable to commit to the role fully moving forward into the new season” following McKellar’s exit.
Leicester finished McKellar’s first and only season in eighth place, 24 points adrift of the play-off places, and were knocked out of the Champions Cup in the round of 16.
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McKellar lost confidence of Leicester senior players which led to exit
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Palmer, 35, was capped once by Australia and previously worked as the Wallabies’ line-out coach under Eddie Jones before joining Leicester after the Rugby World Cup in October.
Leicester’s pre-season begins on Monday, with Neil Fowkes – the club’s senior academy forwards coach – taking interim charge as scrum coach with the senior squad.
The club confirmed that “all other assistant coaches and performance staff, as announced earlier this month, have commenced work on the 24/25 season”. That group includes Peter Hewat, Leicester’s new attack coach who the club announced had signed on to work with McKellar only a few days before the head coach’s departure.
Leicester also suggested that a new head coach will be named shortly, adding that an announcement was “to be made ahead of the playing group’s return on July 1”.
Michael Cheika, the former Argentina and Australia head coach, has been heavily linked with the role. Cheika has not coached since stepping down from his head coaching role with Argentina at last year’s Rugby World Cup, after they were defeated convincingly in the semi-finals by New Zealand.
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