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Former Wasps assistant Brad Davis secures role back in the Premiership

By Online Editors
Ex-Wasps and Bath assistant Brad Davis is back in the Premiership at London Irish following at stint at PRO14's Ospreys (Photo by David Jones/Getty Images)

Brad Davis will join the London Irish coaching set-up from the start of the 2019/20 Gallagher Premiership campaign.

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The Australian was most recently with the Ospreys in the Guinness PRO14, where they won a play-off against Scarlets to gain entry into Champions Cup 2019/20. 

The 51-year-old has previously worked with Bath and Wasps in the Gallagher Premiership. The former rugby league player will link up from July 1 with the big-spending London Irish, who have invested heavily in new players following the Championship title success.

“I’m really excited at the opportunity to join London Irish. The club is steeped in history and is on an exciting journey as it moves into the Premiership next season,” said Davis.

“Having spoken at length with the club, I am excited about the vision and look forward to working in London Irish’s coaching team.”

Declan Kidney believes the appointment of Davis is a great coup for the newly-promoted Premiership club, stating: “He has a wealth of coaching experience working with some very good sides and has experience of playing in Europe.

“Brad will add a vast amount of knowledge to our coaching set-up and will complement the already great work our current coaches do. I know that Les (Kiss), George (Skivington) and Dec (Danaher) are really looking forward to having him on board.”

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It was announced in May that Davis was to leave the Allen Clarke-led Ospreys after three seasons with the Welsh region he joined in 2016 when Steve Tandy was at the helm. 

At that time, Davis said: “This is a fascinating challenge for me, one that I can’t wait to get started on. Speaking at length to Steve Tandy, I couldn’t help but get excited about the direction in which the Ospreys are heading and where they want to go. His passion is infectious and the vision is clear.”

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Jon 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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