![]() | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Birth name | Richard Cockerill | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date of birth | 16 December 1970 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Place of birth | Rugby, Warwickshire | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 104 kg (16 st 5 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
School | Harris School | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Richard Cockerill (born 16 December 1970) [1] is an English rugby union coach and former player and since January 2024 has been the Head Coach of the Georgian National Rugby Team. Prior to this he was the manager of Top 14 side Montpellier. He was the England national team's interim head coach between Eddie Jones and Steve Borthwick. He played as a hooker, spending the majority of his career at Leicester Tigers where he played 255 games over two spells, he won 27 caps for England and was included in the 1999 Rugby World Cup squad. He won five league titles, two European Cups and two domestic cups as a player.
Following his retirement from playing in 2005 Cockerill became Leicester's forwards coach, becoming head coach in 2009. He led Leicester to Premiership titles in 2009 and 2010, his first two years in charge, and a third title in 2013. After leaving Leicester he joined Toulon in 2017 on a temporary basis but succeeded in taking them to the final of the 2016-17 Top 14 season where they lost to Clermont.
In 2017 he was named as the head coach of Guinness Pro14 side Edinburgh Rugby, [2] leading them to the Pro 14 playoffs for the first time. He extended his contract in April 2018 to remain as head coach with Edinburgh until 2021. [3]
He left Edinburgh when his contract expired in 2021 and was appointed to Eddie Jones' England coaching staff.
After Eddie Jones, Cockerill was appointed interim England coach in 2022.
Cockerill was born in Rugby. Joining Leicester Tigers, he established himself as the B of the "ABC club" alongside Graham Rowntree (A) and Darren Garforth (C). Cockerill was an unused replacement for both the 2001 [4] and 2002 [5] Heineken Cup finals.
He made his England debut against Argentina in 1997 and later his first match at Twickenham was as a half-time replacement for the Bath hooker Andy Long in Clive Woodward's first match in charge against the Wallabies; Long was young and clearly out of his depth.[ citation needed ] Cockerill's performance earned him a starting place against New Zealand, where he stood up to Norm Hewitt during the haka (see book cover).
A dip in form led him to lose his first choice hooking position at Leicester to Dorian West. He was also dropped from the England side after criticising Woodward in his book entitled In Your Face. He subsequently moved to France, but signed again for Leicester for the 2004–05 season.
In 2005 he was appointed forwards coach at Leicester Tigers succeeding John Wells. [6] Cockerill served as acting head coach of Leicester Tigers in the early part of the 2007–08 season before Marcelo Loffreda arrived from Argentina in the wake of the Pumas' third-place finish in the 2007 Rugby World Cup. He also took over as acting head coach in February 2009 after Heyneke Meyer resigned due to family reasons. On 17 April 2009, Cockerill was confirmed in the head coach role. [7] On 16 May he guided Leicester to win the Premiership with a 10–9 win over London Irish in the final. [8] A week later they lost in the final of the Heineken cup to Leinster 19–16 in Edinburgh. [9] In the 2009–10 season Cockerill also led The Tigers to a second Premiership title in a row with a win over Saracens at Twickenham. On 13 December 2016, it was announced that Cockerill was to be fired from his position if he did not 'turn a corner' and subsequent defeats against various teams along with the players themselves asking for a change. On 2 January 2017 he was sacked after a home loss to Saracens in the Premiership.
Four days later, on 6 January 2017, he found a position with French TOP 14 team Toulon as a member of the coaching team for the 2016-2017 season.
On 20 February 2017, it was announced Cockerill has been appointed as head coach of Edinburgh Rugby for the 2017–18 Pro14 season. Following a downturn in results in the 2020/21 season it was announced in July 2021 that Cockerill would be leaving the club ahead of the 2021/22 season after 4 years in charge. [10]
On 3 September 2021, Cockerill was announced as England's new forwards coach, in Eddie Jones' coaching team. [11]
After Eddie Jones was fired from his England post in December 2022, Cockerill was appointed interim England coach.
At the end of 2023, Cockerill became the head coach of the Georgian national rugby union team.
Leicester Tigers are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby.
Graham Christopher Rowntree is an English rugby union former player and current head coach of Irish club Munster. He played loosehead prop for Leicester Tigers and England. He was capped 54 times for England, despite having to compete for his position with one of the world's most capped forwards, Jason Leonard. Rowntree was born in Stockton-on-Tees. He was educated at John Cleveland College, Hinckley, Leicestershire, which has also produced other rugby union players.
The Ospreys, formerly the Neath–Swansea Ospreys is one of the four professional rugby union teams from Wales. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup. The team formed as a result of Neath RFC and Swansea RFC combining to create a new merged entity, as part of the new regional structure of Welsh rugby, that began in 2003. They are also affiliated with a number of local semi-professional and amateur clubs, including Welsh Premier Division sides Aberavon RFC, Bridgend Ravens, and original founding clubs Neath and Swansea. The regional area represented by the team has widely become known for rugby purposes as 'Ospreylia'.
Edinburgh Rugby is one of the two professional rugby union teams from Scotland. The club competes in the United Rugby Championship, along with the Glasgow Warriors, its oldest rival. Edinburgh plays the majority of its home games at Edinburgh Rugby Stadium.
Stephen William Borthwick is an English rugby union coach and former player who is currently the head coach of the England national team. As a player, he played as a lock for Bath and Saracens. At international level, he played for England 57 times from his debut in 2001; he served as captain from 2008 until he was dropped from the side in 2010.
Paul Gustard is a former rugby union footballer who played for Leicester Tigers, London Irish and Saracens at flanker. He was captain of rugby and educated at the Royal Grammar School in Newcastle and is the son of former Gosforth favourite Steve Gustard, who was the club's leading try scorer for several seasons in the late 1970s. He gained Full County Cap honours with Durham County and was selected to captain the England U21 tour to Australia under manager Jeff Probyn. He was the only player not to be attached to a Premiership Rugby Squad.
Richard Eric Peter Wigglesworth is an English rugby union coach and former professional player. He is the record appearance maker for Premiership Rugby, he played for Sale Sharks, Saracens and Leicester Tigers. He has won Seven Premiership titles, one with Sale, five with Saracens, and one with Leicester as well as three European Rugby Champions Cups with Saracens. Between 2008 and 2018 he won 33 caps for England. In his career he has played over 400 club games.
Richard Blaze is an English rugby union forwards coach and former player who played Lock for Leicester Tigers and Worcester Warriors. Due to his early retirement from the game, Blaze is widely known as one of the youngest but most experienced coaches in premiership rugby.
Thomas Nicholas Youngs is a retired rugby union player who played as a hooker for Leicester Tigers and England. Between 2012–2015 he won 28 caps for England, including selection for the 2015 Rugby World Cup and was selected for the 2013 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia where he played in all three test matches. He played 215 times for Leicester between 2006 and 2021, winning the Premiership Rugby title in 2013, the same season that he was named as the league's Player of the season. He also won the 2011-12 Anglo-Welsh Cup with Leicester. Between 2009 and 2011 Youngs played 55 matches for Nottingham where he converted from centre to hooker.
Daniel Richard Cole is an English professional rugby union player who plays as a prop for Premiership Rugby club Leicester Tigers and the England national team.
Etuale Manusamoa Tuilagi is a professional rugby union player who plays as a centre for Premiership Rugby club Sale Sharks. Born in Samoa, he represents England at international level after qualifying on residency grounds.
Michele Rizzo is a retired Italian former rugby union player. His preferred position was prop but he can also play as a hooker. Rizzo last played for Petrarca, the club where he spent most of his career and where he made his debut in Serie A1 halfway through the 2000–01 season in a match against Viadana. He spent four years between 2014–2018 in England playing 38 times for Leicester Tigers.
George Thomas Ford is an English professional rugby union player who plays as a fly-half for Premiership Rugby club Sale Sharks and the England national team.
Matt O'Connor is an Australian professional rugby union coach and a former international player. He was recently the head coach of the Leicester Tigers. O'Connor has held head coaching positions with the Queensland Reds ; at Irish province Leinster, where he won the Pro12 in 2013–14; and in a previous stint with Leicester, where he won the Premiership in 2013.
Owen Williams is a Welsh professional rugby union player who plays as a fly-half for the Ospreys. He has represented Wales and Wales U20.
Ellis Genge is an English professional rugby union player who plays as a prop for Premiership Rugby club Bristol Bears and the England national team.
History of Leicester Tigers details the history of the rugby union club based in Leicester, England. Nicknamed the Tigers from 1885, Leicester have been a prominent club from the earliest days of organised English rugby dominating midlands rugby before the First World War; providing British Lions captains in 1930, 1936, 1997 and 2001; and winning 21 major titles since 1979 including a record 11 Premiership Rugby titles.
The 2017–18 PRO14 was the seventeenth season of the professional rugby union competition originally known as the Celtic League. It is the first season to be referred to as the Guinness PRO14 Championship, with the addition of two South African teams.
Joseph Connor Rhys Heyes is an English professional rugby union player who plays as a prop for Premiership Rugby club Leicester Tigers and the England national team. He was a Premiership Rugby champion in 2022.
Jack Corstiaan van Poortvliet is an English professional rugby union player who plays as a scrum-half for Premiership Rugby club Leicester Tigers and the England national team.