Samuel Brook Vesty (born 26 November 1981) is an English rugby union player and coach. He is currently the Head Coach of Northampton Saints. He played utility back (though his preferred position is full back) principally for Leicester Tigers. He has also had coaching roles principally at Worcester Warriors.
Vesty is the fourth generation of his family to play for the Tigers.[1] His father Phil Vesty made 47 first-team appearances for Leicester as a prop between 1971 and 1976, his paternal grandfather Albert (Bernard) Vesty made one appearance for Leicester on the wing in the last game of the 1946/47 season, and a great-grandfather, Jack Dickens, a centre-cum-wing, made 15 first-team appearances for Tigers in the 1909–1910 season.
Vesty is an all-round sportsman, having played as a wicket-keeper/batsman for Leicestershire C.C.C.'s 2nd XI before having to give up cricket to focus on his rugby.[3] He has also played tennis to county level.
Vesty played in a rock band with other Tigers players Ollie SmithDan Hipkiss, Aaron Mauger and George Chuter called Slo Progress before moving club to Bath, where he still plays music with club colleagues in the music room at Farleigh House.[4]
Playing career
Vesty could play full back, fly-half or centre. He has also played one game on the wing, though his lack of pace proved problematic. His strengths lay in the fact that he was an all-round footballer, with good ball handling and kicking skills.
He came through the Tigers academy, making his first team début in 2001 Biarritz in the Orange cup.[1] Initially he played as fly-half after Andy Goode moved to Saracens, but he was young, inexperienced and at 12 stone had not properly bulked out (he later weighed 14 stone). He played in other backs positions and was voted the members player of the year for the 2005/06 season.[1] Vesty started as Leicester won the 2007 Premiership final.[5]
He did not feature much in the early part of the 2008/09 season and had been considering leaving Leicester to get game time when circumstances changed in February 2009.[3][6] With Toby Flood with the England squad and Derick Hougaard injured, Vesty was brought back to play at fly-half. This coincided with a change in fortune for Leicester who started rising up the Guinness Premiership table. Vesty remained in the team either at fly-half or inside centre for the rest of the season. He subsequently started as Leicester won the Premiership final that year.[7]
In April 2010 it was announced Vesty would be joining Bath Rugby on a 3-year contract at the end of the season.[8]
Vesty was rewarded for his good end to season with a call up to the full England squad for the summer tour against Argentina.[1][9] He made his début off the bench against Argentina in Old Trafford in June 2009.[10]
Vesty retired from playing in 2013.
Coaching career
Vestey worked as a coach at Worcester Warriors from 2013, initially coaching the Worcester Cavaliers to the Premiership Rugby A League final for the very first time in the 2014/15 season. He then progressed from Transition Coach to Backs Coach two years later.
He then worked for a summer as skills coach for the England rugby team, under Eddie Jones, overseeing two Test victories over Argentina in 2017.
In summer 2018 Vesty joined Northampton Saints as Attack and Backs coach, working under Chris Boyd.[11][12] Boyd in 2019 said this recruitment was "one of the best decisions I’ve made."[13] In the season of 2022/23, Vesty was promoted to Head Coach after the departure of Boyd, alongside Phil Dowson who was promoted to Director of Rugby.
Related Research Articles
Leicester Tigers are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby.
Northampton Saints is a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby.
Andrew James Goode is a sports pundit and retired rugby union player. Goode had an 18-year professional career playing over 400 games and scoring over 4,000 points. He played professionally in England, France and South Africa featuring for Leicester Tigers, Saracens, Worcester Warriors, Wasps and Newcastle Falcons in England's Premiership Rugby, CA Brive in France's Top 14 and for Super Rugby's Sharks in South Africa. Goode represented England 17 times between 2005 and 2009 scoring 107 points.
Jeremy Staunton is an Irish rugby union fly-half and Fullback, having retired in 2012 while playing for English club Leicester Tigers in the top level of English rugby, the English Premiership. He has also played at every level for Ireland.
Anthony Allen is a former England international rugby union player and coach. He played for Premiership Rugby club Gloucester 91 times between 2005 and 2009 then 126 times for Leicester Tigers as a centre before his retirement due to injury in 2015. He was a Premiership champion in 2010 and 2013, where he was named man of the match in the final.
Ryan Lamb is an English former rugby union player who played at fly-half.
Benjamin Ryder Youngs is an English professional rugby union player who plays as a scrum-half for Premiership Rugby club Leicester Tigers, between 2010 and 2023 he played a record 127 times for the England national team.
Matthew William Smith is an English rugby union coach and a retired professional rugby union player. Smith played 228 games for Leicester Tigers between 2006 and 2019. He played in winning Premiership Finals in 2009, 2010 and 2013, as well as Anglo-Welsh Cup winning sides in 2012 and 2017. His primary position was centre but he also played wing.
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.
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.
Sam Olver is a professional rugby union player currently playing at Doncaster Knights in the RFU Championship.
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.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
