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'Like anyone it hit him like a bit of a train'
Incoming Newcastle boss Dave Walder is hoping the Falcons will soon complete negotiations to being Mark Wilson on board his coaching ticket for the 2022/23 Gallagher Premiership season. It was February 14 when it was confirmed that the 32-year-old England back-rower would be retiring from playing with immediate effect just two weeks after making his long-awaited comeback off the Falcons bench.
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In the end, a troublesome knee injury did for the Newcastle stalwart who won 23 England caps and played in the 2019 World Cup final off the bench. At the time of the retirement announcement, director of rugby Dean Richards told RugbyPass: “I hate talking about people being retired, it’s as though you have written him off in his life. It sounds f***in’ terrible,” he said.
“His knee had been grumbling for quite some time and we sat down after one of the games recently and he said that he went to go on the pitch, had warmed up on the bike and just struggled, his knee locked out on the pitch and he was limping around. It [Retirement] didn’t come as a surprise at all, to be honest with you. He has had a lot of problems with it over the last few years.”
Although he currently had his No6 Coffee House in Ryton, Wilson’s future plans were unknown when he retired but when news broke the other week that head coach Walder would succeed Richards when he steps away as director of rugby at the end of the season, it was mentioned in the Newcastle media release that “Mark Wilson is also expected to become a member of the coaching team”.
According to Walder, that potential tie-up that would Newcastle bring Wilson back into the fold has yet to be fully signed off on. “No, there are all sorts of bits and pieces going on in terms of trying to clarify roles and responsibilities,” said the soon-to-be Falcons boss when asked by RugbyPass for an update on the situation with their recently retired star forward.
“Mark has been pretty clear he wants to get into coaching. He is a club legend from a playing point of view and there are a few bits and pieces I guess, dot the Is and cross the Ts before we know exactly where we are at on that. In all honesty, I have only had a couple of coffees with him. It came as a bit of a shock with his knee.
“He hadn’t played as much as he wanted to going into the start of the season, he wasn’t in as great a shape as he hoped he would be. He’s a phenomenal professional, a phenomenal athlete and it sort of caught up with him. Like anyone it hit him like a bit of a train, he took a bit of time away and started training for duathlons and physically he is in good shape.
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“His knee is still giving him struggles but he has realised that in the life of a coach you can stand around, you don’t have to run around. But mentally he is in a good place and looking forward to hopefully getting back involved and helping the club move forward.
“He has done little bits and pieces (of coaching) at a couple of local clubs and he has certainly been very proactive in speaking to coaches in different sports and different teams and trying to get ideas from them and find out exactly the ins and outs of how they do things.
“We talked about our job as a coaching group is to get the balance and blend right and it is in everyone’s interest to make sure we are all doing what we are good at and just trying to find out exactly what that is might take a little bit of time. Once we know what it is we can all use our strengths to help the group move forward.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 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
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!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 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.
26 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.
26 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 comments