Northern | US

Bordeaux statement: The signing of assistant Shaun Sowerby


New Bordeaux recruit Shaun Sowerby (Photo by Pascal Guyot/AFP via Getty Images)
Comments
Comment

Retired Springboks No8 Shaun Sowerby is back in the Top 14 after being recruited on a one-year deal by Bordeaux, the 2023/24 French league finalists.

ADVERTISEMENT

The 46-year-old, who won his only South Africa cap in 2002 versus Samoa, carved out a playing career in France after exiting the Sharks, going on to represent Stade Francais, Toulouse and Grenoble before hanging up his boots in 2014. He started his coaching career at Eastern Province before returning to France to assist Montpellier and then Biarritz, who are now in Pro D2 after a one-season, 2021/22 stay in the French top flight.

A statement read: “Union Bordeaux Begles have signed Shaun Sowerby as their touchline coach for the 2024/25 season to compensate for the absence of Aksventi Giorgadze.

Video Spacer

Paul Gustard on potential “signing of the season” Owen Farrell

Coach Paul Gustard is full of praise for Racing 92 signing Owen Farrell

Video Spacer

Paul Gustard on potential “signing of the season” Owen Farrell

Coach Paul Gustard is full of praise for Racing 92 signing Owen Farrell

“Former back row player for Stade Francais, Toulouse and Grenoble, Shaun Sowerby, who has one cap with the Springboks, joined the Montpellier staff before joining Biarritz Olympique in 2019 where he contributed to the Basque club’s rise to the Top 14.

“He has just signed a one-year contract with UBB as a lineout coach. His arrival comes in a particular context, linked to a health problem of our current touchline coach Aksventi Giorgadze. We wish ‘Globus’ a speedy recovery and express our full support.”

Related

ADVERTISEMENT
Play Video
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 Long Reads

Comments on RugbyPass

T
TL 2 hours ago
Joe Schmidt bows out on a high - but can the Wallabies escape 'the twilight zone'?

All of that seems fair enough, aside from the 10 criticism: Lynagh was injured so not up for selection this year + missed most of SR, Noah went to Japan league 2, maybe an argument for bringing him back in early, but we had Carter. Dono and Meredith (who looks decent enough). Definitely not a straightforward call. Edmed was an experiment that didn’t bear fruit, I’m happy to forgive him that one though, because he did what Cheik and Rennie didn’t do, which was consistently look to develop young 10s in the face of criticism (Rennie’s chopping and changing wasn’t great for Noah, and it was back to the future too often for Cheik, which hurt our development pathways e.g. Mack Mason, Jack Maddocks, and too often gambling on people out of position—more than Joe!). Tane is one specific failed experiment. l just wish we had a more scrupulous punditry when it comes to the recent past (your obvs not in the crosshairs here, it’s the Aussie media). TBH, I worry about the identity piece: feel it should be the salt on the meal, rather than the meal. The Reds are full of Aussie identity but they play the most hairpulling rugby at times and the identity seems to excuse this, while the Brums with less talent and less of an identity in the Australian mould over perform. To be optimistic, maybe it does look a little like the Ireland transition with Les coming in a bit like Farrell, seemingly more of a emotive, man motivator type than the technician Joe. What would have been fantastic and helped everything also was for RA not to burn bridges with Lancaster and be able to get him back and have the Tahs cooking, that is one big piece of the puzzle (the Tahs) that will make our national coach’s job a lot easier.

257 Go to comments
Close Panel
Close Panel

Edition & Time Zone

{{current.name}}
Set time zone automatically
{{selectedTimezoneTitle}} (auto)
Choose a different time zone
Close Panel

Editions

Close Panel

Change Time Zone

Close
ADVERTISEMENT
Copied to clipboard

Share Article close