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Steenson lands his first coaching gig at Exeter's old Championship rivals
Exeter fly-half Gareth Steenson has landed himself a coaching role at a club who were once the Chiefs’ fiercest rivals in the Championship.
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While Exeter have long since departed the English second tier and gone to win the Premiership title in 2017, the fortunes for nearby Devon rivals Plymouth Albion haven’t been as extravagant.
After 13 seasons in the Championship, they slipped down to National League One in 2015 and have been trying to fight their way back up ever since.
The battle will now be aided by the addition of Exeter’s leading all-time points scorer after he agreed to help out coaching the Albion backs while still playing for Rob Baxter’s Chiefs next season.
“This is a great opportunity for me,” said the 35-year-old Irishman who joined Exeter in 2008 after initially playing for Rotherham and Cornish Pirates following his move from Northern Ireland. He is contracted at Sandy Park until the end of the 2019/20 season.
A great opportunity for myself & looking forward to working with the guys @AlbionRFC for the season ahead. Also really excited for the year ahead on the pitch with the @ExeterChiefs lads. Promises to be another big year for the club. Here’s hoping for successful year for both ? https://t.co/cWDgH1yukS
— Gareth Steenson (@steeno10) July 4, 2019
“It will be great to work with the guys in Plymouth and get to know them. The last time I actually played against Plymouth would have been about 10 years ago. I always remember them as being a tough side.
“Continuing to play at Exeter and coaching at Plymouth fits the bill for me. It’s great to be a player, but a fantastic opportunity to be in a different environment and taking on a coaching role. Being a player gives you a good understanding of the game.
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“Everything has changed since I started playing rugby. I’m not sure about my coaching style – I’ve only ever had two or three coaches, so I’ve been quite lucky. It’s about me coming in and helping out and sharing my knowledge.
? GARETH STEENSON TO JOIN ALBION AS A COACH
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Incredible news for Albion to have secured Gareth's services for the forthcoming season! Gareth commented; "This is a great opportunity for me."
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? READ MORE: https://t.co/V9mbHoKJ99
.#AlbionAsOne pic.twitter.com/e9N2uJ0O5C— Plymouth Albion (@AlbionRFC) July 4, 2019
“My playing style had to evolve and the way we play at Exeter is an attacking brand of rugby. We’ll see how it goes in Plymouth and what style of rugby they like.”
Steenson’s first coaching role came about following an approach from Albion boss Ben Gulliver, who is new to the job. Carl Rimmer, Steenson’s former Chiefs team-mate who retired from the game after a stroke last year, is also involved as an assistant, taking charge of scrums and forward play.
“Ben realises the club has been doing quite well, so no-one’s going to come in and rip it all up. He knows the place is in good shape,” continued Steenson, who opened The Stand Off, an Exeter sports-themed bar last year, with business partner Rimmer.
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Gulliver, who also has Dan Mugford assisting, added: “I’m building a group of people around me that I trust and can support me in a way that we can develop the team. Gareth has the experience and knowledge, at a high level, that can deliver a stepped change in the skills of Albion players.”
WATCH: Part one of The Academy, the six-part RugbyPassdocumentary series on how Leicester Tigers develop their young players
Comments on RugbyPass
It’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
2 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
24 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
1 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
1 Go to commentsSad that this was not confirmed. When administrators talk about expanding the game they evidently don’t include pathways to the top tier of rugby for teams outside of the old boys club. Rugby deserves better, and certainly Georgia does.
2 Go to commentsLions might take him on if they move on Van Rooyen but I doubt he will want to go back, might consider it a step backwards for himself. Sharks would take him on but if Plumtree goes on to win the challenge cup they will keep him on. Also sharks showing some promising signs recently. Stormers and Bulls are stable and Springboks are already filled up. Quality coach though, interesting to see where he ends up
1 Go to commentsAnd the person responsible for creating a culture of accountability is?
3 Go to commentsMore useless words from Ben Smith -Please get another team to write about. SA really dont need your input, it suck anyway.
264 Go to commentsThis disgraceful episode must result in management and coach team sackings. A new manager with worse results than previous and the coaching staff need to coached. Awful massacre led by donkeys.
1 Go to commentsInteresting article with one glaring mistake. This sentence: “And between the top four nations right now, Ireland, France, South Africa, and New Zealand…” should read: And between the top four nations right now, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand and France…”. Get it right wistful thinkers, its not that hard.
24 Go to commentsHow did Penny get the gig anyway?
3 Go to commentsNice write up Nick and I would have agreed a week ago. However as you would know Cale & co got absolutely monstered by the Blues back row of Sotutu, Ioane and Papaliti and not all of these 3 are guaranteed a start in the Black jumper. He may need to put some kgs before stepping up, Spring tour? After the week end Joe will be a bit more restless. Will need to pick a mobile tough pack for Wales and hope England does the right thing and bashes the ABs. I like your last paragraph but I would bring Swinton, Hannigan into the 6 role and Bobby V to 8
24 Go to commentsThe Crusaders can still get in to the Play Off’s. The imminent return of outstanding captain Scott Barrett and his All Black team mate Codie Taylor will be a big boost.There are others like Tamaiti Williams too. Two home games coming up. Fellow Crusader fans get there and support these guys. I will be.
2 Go to commentsCant get more Wellington than Proctor.
2 Go to commentsWhy not let the media decide. Like how they choose the head coach. Like most of us we entrust the rugby system to choose. A rugby team includes the coaches. It's collective.
14 Go to commentsHi NIck, I have been very impressed with him and he seems a smart player who can see opportunities which Bobby V _(who must be an international 6_) doesn’t see or have the speed to take advantage of. If he continues to improve and puts on 5kgs then he could be a great 8. He is a bit taller than Keiran Reid at 1.93m and 111 kgs, so his skill set fits his body size and who knows where it will lead. I hope the spate of Achilles tendon issues have been dealt with by the S&C people. It’s been a very long time since Mark Loane and Kefu stood out at 8. The question is will we be able to hold onto him, if he does make it he will be pretty hot property. I disagree with the idea of letting them go to the Northern Hemisphere and then bring them back.
24 Go to commentsBilly Fulton 🤣🤣🤣🤣 garrrmon not even close
14 Go to commentsDoes the AI take into account refs? hahaha Seriously why not have two on field refs to avoid bias?
24 Go to comments