John Kear

John Kear

Kear in 2007
Personal information
Born	(1954-11-25) 25 November 1954 Castleford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Playing information
Position	Wing, Centre, Fullback
Club Years Team Pld T G FG P 1978–88 Castleford 133 37 0 0 132
Coaching information
Club Years Team Gms W D L W% 1995–96 PSG 44 9 1 34 20 1997–99 Sheffield 65 24 3 38 37 2005 Hull 12 5 0 7 42 2006–11 Wakefield Trinity 103 49 1 53 48 2011–16 Batley Total 224 87 5 132 39 Representative Years Team Gms W D L W% 1997 France 1 1 0 0 100 2000 England 6 4 0 2 67 2014– Wales 6 3 0 3 50
Source: Rugby League Project

John Kear (born 25 November 1954 in Castleford, West Riding of Yorkshire) is an English rugby league coach and former player. He is best known as a coach for his Challenge Cup successes with Sheffield Eagles in 1998 and Hull in 2005, as well as his time coaching Wakefield Trinity in the late 2000s. As a player, he played on the Wing or in the Centre position for Castleford. He is currently the head coach of Batley and the Wales national rugby league team, while also working as a pundit for BBC Sport.

Playing career

County Cup final appearances

John Kear played as a Left-Wing, i.e. number 5, in Castleford's 2-13 defeat by Hull in the 1983 Yorkshire Cup final during the 1983–84 season at Elland Road, Leeds on Saturday 15 October 1983.

Coaching career

Early career

After stints working as a conditioner for Castleford, head coach of Bramley (1992), working in the player performance department of the Rugby Football League, head coach of Paris St Germain and assistant coach to both England and Great Britain, he took over the coaching reigns at Sheffield Eagles in 1997, taking them to the Premiership semi-final in that year. A year later he was the coach who led Sheffield Eagles to a remarkable Challenge Cup final victory over Wigan, this triumph is believed by many to be the greatest shock in Challenge Cup history.

Sheffield merged with Huddersfield after the 1999 season and Kear retained his job as coach of the merged side before moving on to become the assistant coach to Stuart Raper at Wigan.

He was coach of the England team in the 2000 World Cup, leading them to the semi-finals.

Later career

He left Wigan for the First Team Coach role at Hull, working with Shaun McRae. He stepped up to First Team coach at Hull in 2005 when predecessor Shaun McRae left to take charge of South Sydney Rabbitohs. He led the club to victory over Leeds, by a 25-24 scoreline in the 2005 Challenge Cup in his first season. However in April 2006 he was sacked by Hull and took charge of Wakefield Trinity in July 2006 where he steered the team clear of relegation with four wins from the last six matches of the season, culminating in the great escape and condemning Castleford to relegation to National League 1.

In 2007 he fielded a predominantly untried squad and led Trinity to 8th position in the Super League, their second highest Super League finish.

In 2009 Kear led Wakefield Trinity to 5th position, their highest ever Super League finish. The team were knocked out of the first round of the play-offs by Catalans Dragons.

In 2011 Kear left Wakefield Trinity to become head coach of Batley.

On 16 July 2014 Kear succeeded Iestyn Harris as head coach of Wales, a role he will undertake alongside his position at Batley. His first game was against Scotland in the 2014 European Cup. He lost the opening game by a score of 42-18 in horrible weather conditions. After a horrible 2014 European Cup event, his more 'strengthened' Welsh team took on Scotland again in the opening match of the 2015 Tournament. John's team earned their first ever victory after a spree of 12 consecutive defeats which began back in 2011. Wales went on to be unbeaten in the tournament resulting in them winning their first European Cup tournament since 2010.