Ex-England forward Palmer wants to follow Alex King into Premiership coaching role from France
Tom Palmer, the former England, Wasps and Gloucester lock, completed a remarkable clean sweep of domestic and European titles and is hoping to be the latest player to launch an English coaching career from France. Fellow ex-Wasps player Alex King, the former Clermont and Montpellier assistant coach who helped Northampton win the 2013-14 Premiership, has just been appointed as Gloucester’s attack coach while in January, Ian Vass swapped the defence coach role with Montpellier to do the same job at Northampton.
Also in France is Joe Worsley, the former England and Wasps World Cup winner, who has spent his coaching career in France and is currently with Castres after seven years with Bordeaux. Rory Teague, who has just been axed by Gloucester, also spent time at Bordeaux with former Bristol flanker Joe El-Abd coaching at Castres and Oyonnax while at the very top of the sport in France, Shaun Edwards is the national team’s defence coach having crossed the Channel after helping turn Wales into Europe’s top team.
Palmer is fluent in French having played for Stade Francais and Bordeaux and also spent a season in Italy having won 42 caps for England. He is currently the defence and assistant forwards coach at Rouen, working alongside head coach Richard Hill, the former England scrum-half and captain, who has enjoyed a long coaching career across the Channel.
While Hill appears happy to continue operating in France, Palmer admits following King back into English rugby would be his target after gaining more experience of life in the Pro D2, the second flight of the French professional rugby system. Rouen were facing the drop before the season was ended due to the pandemic but Palmer is confident of a better showing when next season gets underway thanks to the arrival of new players including Carl Fearns from Lyon, Phil Swainson (Harlequins), James Johnston (Brive) and Marvin Woki (Tarbes).
Palmer’s playing career brought a Powergen Cup win with Leeds, the Premiership and Heineken Cup in Wasps colours and the European Challenge Cup while at Gloucester and he keeps a close eye on the state of the Gallagher Premiership where King will be working with outside half Danny Cipriani, another ex-Wasps favourite.
The 41-year-old Palmer told RugbyPass: “I would love to come back and coach in England but there are certainly more opportunities in France because of the two full-time professional leagues and being bilingual is useful. I am doing my French coaching diploma which is similar to Level 4 in England and it is something you need in France. It is the equivalent of a degree.
“I am really enjoying my coaching at Rouen and when I signed for Treviso it was to run the line out, but I ended being the player coach and was sort of thrust into it. I really enjoyed the experience and decided that I wanted to coach after my playing career ended and then I went to Bordeaux and got more experience and then a year in Aurillac and this is my second year with Rouen.
“We have signed some good players like Carl Fearns, James Johnston and Phil Swainson for next season. The problem coming up to Pro D2 into this season was the timing of play-off system.
“It means you don’t know if you are going to get promoted to Pro D2 until you win the final in the middle of June and then you have to go out and try to sign players.
“That was a really tough ask last summer but we have now added some real quality to our group. With the ending of the season due to the pandemic it has meant we have also been able to have a proper pre-season rather than finishing in June and then back into it at the end of August.
“The idea that training is broken up by a nice glass of wine is long gone in French rugby, however, being a Pro D2 team the infrastructure isn’t as good as say the Premiership but we have a great coaching staff and we are building quite well.
“Richard Hill is the head coach and the coaching is bilingual because we have a number of players who speak English. We had a bad run in January and February losing matches by a point in the final minutes and so the break has helped.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Beautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe 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
4 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 Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 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!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 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.
30 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 comments