Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

'The most excited I have been for any job' - Rowntree explains why he's chosen Georgia

Graham Rowntree, former forwards coach with Harlequins (Photo by Steve Bardens/Getty Images)

Graham Rowntree, the former British and Irish Lions coach who quit Harlequins in the summer, has revealed that becoming Georgia’s forwards coach for their World Cup campaign was an “opportunity I just couldn’t miss.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Rowntree will reprise the role he held with both the Lions and England and has joined a coaching team headed by New Zealand’s Milton Haig after staying below the rugby radar since his exit from Harlequins following last season’s disappointing campaign that also led to the departures of John Kingston and Nick Easter, who is working with the Sharks in Durban.

Rowntree played loosehead prop for the British & Irish Lions, Leicester and England, earning 54 international caps and played in two World Cups. He was part of the England coaching set-up under Stuart Lancaster at the 2015 World Cup when the host country failed to get out of their Pool.

Georgia are in Pool D at next year’s World Cup in Japan alongside Australia, Wales, Fiji and Uruguay and Rowntree’s background knowledge of those opponents and his love of forward play will be a major asset to Georgia.

“I have not felt like this before about a role. Probably the most excited I have been for any job”, Rowntree said after being presented to the media.

“For an Englishman to be coaching the Georgian forward pack it’s… but I have been a big fan of Georgian forward play for a long time and to have the opportunity to be associated with such a forward pack and help to get the best out of that forward pack. It is such a big year coming up – it is an opportunity I just couldn’t miss.”

“The warmth that has been shown by Milton (Haig) and everyone else in the organisation has furthermore increased my excitement. I cannot wait to get stuck into the games in the Autumn.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Head coach Haig added “The most impressive thing, certainly from my point of view, when I first met Graham was his enthusiasm to be able to be involved in the Georgian team. Right from the start and his very first words when I met him four weeks ago was his excitement and his enthusiasm to be involved with this Georgian team and that for me said everything about the guy, as a person first and obviously as a coach.”

You may also like: Wallabies Allan Alaalatoa and Ned Hanigan speak ahead of Springboks test

Video Spacer

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 4 hours ago
'Let's not sugarcoat it': Former All Black's urgent call to protect eligibility rules

Yep, no one knows what will happen. Thing is I think (this is me arguing a point here not a random debate with this one) they're better off trialing it now in a controlled environment than waiting to open it up in a knee jerk style reaction to a crumbling organtization and team. They can always stop it again.


The principle idea is that why would players leave just because the door is ajar?


BBBR decides to go but is not good enough to retain the jersey after doing it. NZ no longer need to do what I suggest by paying him to get back upto speed. That is solely a concept of a body that needs to do what I call pick and stick wth players. NZR can't hold onto everyone so they have to choose their BBBRs and if that player comes back from a sabbatical under par it's a priority to get him upto speed as fast as possible because half of his competition has been let go overseas because they can't hold onto them all. Changing eligibility removes that dilemma, if a BBBR isn't playing well you can be assured that someone else is (well the idea is that you can be more assured than if you only selected from domestic players).


So if someone decides they want to go overseas, they better do it with an org than is going to help improve them, otherwise theyre still basically as ineligible as if they would have been scorning a NZ Super side that would have given them the best chance to be an All Black.

147 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Return of 30-something brigade provides welcome tonic for Wales Return of 30-something brigade provides welcome tonic for Wales
Search