Mike Ford (rugby)
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Mike A. Ford (born 18 November 1965) is an English former rugby league player and current rugby union coach. He is the England national rugby union team's defence coach.
Born in Oldham, Lancashire, Ford played rugby league as a scrum half, playing for Wigan, Leigh, Wakefield Trinity, Castleford, South Queensland Crushers and Oldham. He won 10 caps for Great Britain.
He retired in 2001 as player-coach of Oldham RLFC after guiding them to the championship Grand Final. Whilst at Oldham, he started coaching rugby union at Dukinfield RUFC for 5 seasons winning a cup and two promotions. He left Oldham RLFC to take over as Defensive Co-ordinator of Ireland in January 2002 and stayed for 4 seasons winning a triple crown and guiding Ireland to 3rd in the world rankings. In September 2004 he started working as a defence and skills coach at Saracens F.C., before taking over as head coach in August 2005.
He served as a defence coach on the 2005 British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand, a series that the Lions lost 3-0 conceding a record 12 tries, and left his position with Ireland in September 2005. He became defence coach of England May 2006.
He was part of the coaching team that was severely criticised by senior players in the 2007 RWC. In an unprecedented act of contempt for the England coaches, the senior players took control of the team and devised their own strategies to play the knock-out matches after the dismal performances in the pool matches where they conceded 7 tries including a record 0-36 loss to South Africa;
"Everything about England was wrong during those pool games," one senior player said. "There was an incredible amount of confusion – all the coaches were giving different advice and all seemed to be involved in selection so different players were selected all the time.
"At training, they'd spend more time arguing among themselves than training us, so the players started to train themselves, but each player wanted to train like he did in his club, so there were arguments brewing there between the different club factions." [1].
The England playing record since Mike Ford became the defence coach is; [2]
Played 58, Won 27, Lost 30, Drawn 1,
Against 3N, Played 22, Won 4, Lost 18
Against all comers an average of 22 points conceded per game, against 3N, 31 points per game
Least points conceded in 2009 Six Nations (70) and least tries conceded in the 2010 Six Nations (5)
Ford is a Tigers Hall Of Fame Inductee.[3]
Two of his sons currently play rugby union, George Ford plays for Leicester Tigers and Joe Ford for Northampton Saints.
References
- ^ "The Telegraph, 26 Oct 2007". Telegraph. 2007-10-26. Retrieved 2009-01-01.
- ^ "Scrum.com, 26 Oct 2007". Espn Scrum.com. 2011-03-08. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
- ^ "Hall of Fame at castigers.com". castigers. 2008-12-31. Retrieved 2009-01-01.
External links
- 1965 births
- People from Oldham
- English rugby league players
- Wigan Warriors players
- Leigh Centurions players
- Wakefield Trinity Wildcats players
- Castleford Tigers players
- South Queensland Crushers players
- England national rugby league team players
- Great Britain national rugby league team players
- Oldham Roughyeds players
- English rugby union coaches
- Living people