Meet Australia's secret weapon for the British and Irish Lions tour: Wallabies recruit expert for 2025 series

Australia have hired line-out specialist Geoff Parling in a major coup ahead of next year's visit of the British and Irish Lions.

Parling, 40, had previously worked with England as a set-piece expert and has been based in Australia since joining the Melbourne Rebels in 2018.

He will be familiar with his surroundings at the Wallabies, having worked as assistant coach under Dave Rennie in 2020. 

Parling will have around just over two months to get the Australians working seamlessly before Wales visit for a two-Test tour this winter, followed by a Test against Georgia. 

Australia then compete in The Rugby Championship against South Africa, Argentina and New Zealand before embarking on the autumn tour of Britain.

Parling will go up against England coach Steve Borthwick - a line-out specialist, on Saturday 9 November at Twickenham, in the ultimate test of his coaching expertise in this area.

He faced the Aussies in the 2013 Lions tour but will be on the other side of the rivalry for 2025, and revealed how the possibility of working with internationally-acclaimed coach Joe Schmidt convinced him to join the Wallabies.

'I spoke to Joe a couple times when he came to the Rebels. I heard a lot of good things about Joe in the past so I'm really excited to work with him on the coaching team,' Parling said. 

'He's very level-headed, consistently sees the game and preps well. I think he's good on basics and getting the fundamentals right. Once you get those, a little bit of brilliance will come.

'I'm pretty familiar with the majority of players that will come in from either coaching or coaching against them regularly. I feel like the little bits of differences we have in Super Rugby teams can be well put together and aligned, we can have a great force as a forward pack at the Wallabies.'

Schmidt said: 'Geoff has spent more than 20 years, playing and coaching in the professional game. His understanding of the line-out, along with his Super Rugby knowledge, and previous experience with the Wallabies will add value to our coaching group.'