Steve Redfern
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| Birth name | Stephen Redfern | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Place of birth | Leicester, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 19 st (120 kg) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Steve Redfern (born in Leicester) is an English rugby union and professional rugby league footballer of the 1970s and '80s, playing representative level rugby union (RU) for England, and a club level for Leicester Tigers, as a tighthead prop, and playing club level rugby league (RL) for Sheffield Eagles.
Early years
Redfern signed for Leicester Tigers from school, and played for the youth team. He made his Leicester début against Nottingham in 1976. He made over 247 appearances for the club.
He wore the letter C shirt as part of the Leicester front row along with the Leicester and England captain Peter Wheeler and England prop forward Robin Cowling. He also played over 100 games with his brother Stuart who replaced Cowling at prop when he retired.
Redfern played in five John Player Cup finals, losing the first one to Gloucester, then winning against Moseley, London Irish, and Gosforth.
International career
Redfern was selected for England under 23s in his first year of eligibility, and gained a place in the England under 23 team that toured Canada at the end of the 1977 season. He made his full England début on 14 February 1984 against Ireland at Twickenham, having played various England games for which they did not award caps. He remained a part of the England set up, and played for England 'B' and for the full England team, until he left to go to Rugby league in 1985 with Sheffield Eagles.
He played for the Midlands Rugby team against the All Blacks and Australia in the 1978/1979 season.
Rugby League
His time as a rugby league player at Sheffield Eagles was cut short by injury, and Redfern retired from the game.
He did go on to play Amateur Rugby League for Leicester RLFC, playing prop forward for several seasons circa 1988.
Coaching record
Redfern spent several years fighting with the RFU to be reinstated to Rugby Union. Redfern was allowed to come back to Rugby Union as a coach, starting with the local Leicestershire team Wigston. He later coached the Swedish club Pingvin in 1990/92 and led them to a win in the Swedish Championships.
He returned from Sweden in 1993 to take over the Nuneaton rugby club. While at Nuneaton he became involved in coaching the west Midlands women's team, then moving on to the Midlands team. His success with them led to a position with the national set up, at first working with the England A team, and then the senior squad. Redfern worked with the team through the six national and European championships.
In 1993, while still working in the women's game, Redfern moved back to his first junior club, Coalville in Leicestershire, as head of rugby. He led the first team to win the league, developed all the Mini/Junior squads and participated in coach development.
In 2006 Redfern left Coalville and worked with the Sheffield club before returning to Leicestershire to spend time working as an adviser to several clubs, including the Leicestershire under 18 squad.
In 2007 he went to Feltre rugby team as director of rugby.[1]
In 2009 Redfern was voted onto the Leicester Tigers walk of legends.[2][3]
In 2009, after the promotion of Asd Rugby Feltre, he went to Berliner Rugby Club as director of rugby.[4]