Richard Cockerill set for shock return to French rugby

Richard Cockerill has become the shock favourite to become Brive’s new head coach after they failed to lure Joe El-Abd away from Steve Borthwick’s England coaching staff.

Brive, who are sixth in the Pro D2 table, travel to struggling Stade Montois tonight and need a new head coach with sporting director Pierre-Henry Broncan moving to take over the Georgian national team at the end of the season.

Broncan returned to the training pitches at the Stade Amédée-Domenech after David Darricarrère was sacked earlier in the season, and they have been linked with several coaches but have run into release issues.

After El-Abd declined their offer, they looked at Bayonne’s under-pressure boss Grégory Patat, who is under contract with the Basque club until the summer of 2028, but that now seems unlikely to happen.

It would be ironic if Cockerill, 55, who has been looking for another job since he was sacked as head coach of Georgia and the Black Lions, were to end up in his replacement’s current job.

He had been linked, as exclusively revealed by RugbyPass, with the scrum coach’s job at United Rugby Championship outfit Connacht, but it is thought that talks with Stuart Lancaster’s side never really progressed past the initial stage.

It was widely assumed that he would throw his hat into the ring at both Gloucester and Harlequins, but Brive, who last won a Top 14 access match against Grenoble in 2019, have been out of the top flight since being relegated in 2023.

Cockerill speaks good French from the two years he spent at Montferrand (now ASM Clermont Auvergne) from 2002 to 2004, when he returned to Leicester Tigers to finish his career before moving into coaching.

The former England hooker has worked as a head coach in France at Toulon in 2017 and at Montpellier in 2023, and being free from any contractual obligations is a massive appeal to Brive bosses who spoke to him this week.