Ex-Wales coach Forshaw set to join new-look coaching team in England

Leicester Tigers will appoint Mike Forshaw as their new defence coach this summer when his contract with the Welsh Rugby Union runs out at the end of the month.

Wigan-born Forshaw, 55, has been working for the WRU since leaving Sale Sharks in 2023 and kept his job in the February reshuffle in the immediate aftermath of Warren Gatland’s departure during the Six Nations Championship.

But the former Great Britain and England rugby league international has not been selec­ted as part of Matt Sher­ratt’s coach­ing squad for the tour to Japan later this month and has been replaced by Cardiff’s Gethin Jen­kins.

Forshaw started his union coaching career with Connacht and then spent a decade at the Sharks will replace former New Zealand rugby league head coach David Kidwell, who joined Michael Cheika’s backroom staff this year.

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Kidwell has been credited with plugging the Tigers leaky defence in his first club role and is set to return to his job as one of Eddie Jones’s assistant coaches in Japan after the Gallagher Premiership Final this weekend.

He stepped in to link up with Cheika, his former boss with the Argentina national team after Matt Ever­ard left Welford Road to become the new head coach at the reformed Worcester Warriors.

Forshaw played for Wigan Warriors, Wakefield Trinity, Leeds Rhinos, Bradford Bulls and Warrington Wolves, where he became a strength and conditioning coach after a 17-year playing career.

He is the first coach to be taken to Welford Road by Geoff Par­ling, who takes over the East Midland giants after the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia later this summer.

Parling was the surprise choice to take over the Tigers after they missed out on Stade Francais boss Paul Gustard, ex-Munster head coach Graham Rowntree, ex-England boss Stuart Lancaster and New Zealander Leon MacDonald.