Dai Young is back in coaching, but it's not at the level you would expect
Dai Young has taken his first tentative steps back in rugby coaching following his exit from Wasps last February following a nine-year stint at the helm of the Gallagher Premiership club. The former Wales prop has recently been linked with the head coach vacancy at Gloucester following the hasty exits of Johan Ackermann and director of rugby David Humphreys.
Gloucester hope to announce their new coach in early July but in the meantime, Young, who was previously linked with the Ospreys position taken up by Toby Booth, is making a low key comeback. Featuring in a short video circulated on CV Life Engage’s social media pages, Young stated that he is linking up with the Coventry Sports Foundation’s summer programme.
“I’m going to be running some of the rugby coaching academy sessions here at the Alan Higgs. I’m really looking forward to seeing you. Look for the details coming up very soon.”
It was March, shortly before rugby in the UK was suspended due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, that Young revealed what he had been up to after a run of poor results over the winter ended his time at Wasps.
After a break in Wales visiting his parents and seeing his sons Lewis and Owain play grassroots rugby in the Welsh Premiership, he revealed he would look at opportunities about getting back into coaching whenever rugby resumed following its current virus-enforced break.
? Rugby legend Dai Young will be guest coaching at The Alan Higgs Centre this summer! ?
All safety measures following COVID-19 guidelines will be in place for these sessions. ??
Details to follow – watch this space! ?@EarlsdonRfc @OldCoventsRFC @ButtsRugby @Pinleyrfc pic.twitter.com/PHL9QzzCs5
— CV Life Education (@cvlifeeducation) June 15, 2020
“I’m getting back in the gym, getting myself fitter and losing a bit of weight. Spending a bit of time on me,” he said in an interview with the Coventry Telegraph. “The director of rugby job is an all-consuming job, you can forget to look after yourself. I want to rest up as well and take a break from it and recharge my batteries.
“Although it’s only been three weeks, it has been completely different. I’m enjoying the break and not being involved in rugby on a day-to-day basis, how long that will last, who knows? The next six weeks, I will sit down and think about what I want moving forward.
“In the last two seasons as director of rugby I have not done as much coaching as I would normally do, I haven’t enjoyed that, I don’t think that’s the best use of my time and experience. The obvious way forward would be a director of rugby role, having spent 16 years as director of rugby at both Cardiff and Wasps.
“The last two years at Wasps I didn’t have a direct hands-on coaching responsibility but an overseeing role. I’d much rather be a director of rugby, head coach. Spending more hands-on coaching time on the pitch. I’m not averse to just being a coach as well. I have got no egotistical thing about wanting to be in charge. I see my next job as being really important, I want to make sure it’s something I enjoy.”
“It’s understandable there is disappointment and disagreement about selection – I want to have a good representation of Scottish players. I desperately want that to happen”
– Warren Gatland tells @jimhamilton4 on @RugbyPass about 2021 Lions selection????????
https://t.co/r3bGjWxCAK— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) June 17, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
Je suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
25 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
25 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to comments