Denis Charles Betts (born 14 September 1969) is an English

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

coach and former player. He was assistant coach of the England national team. A , Betts played in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s for the

Wigan Warriors The Wigan Warriors are a professional rugby league club in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the Super League. Formed in 1872 as Wigan Football Club, Wigan was a founding member of the Rugby Football League, Northern Rugby ...

, with whom he won numerous titles, and for the

Auckland Warriors The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as ...

. He won four caps for England and 32 for

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

, setting a record for a forward. He played in two

Rugby League World Cup The Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league tournament contested by the top national men's representative teams. The tournament is administered by the International Rugby League and was first held in France in 1954, which was ...

s, in 1989-92 and

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, including playing in the finals of both.

Early life

Betts was born on 14 September 1969 in

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

, Lancashire and attended Clarendon High School. He has a younger brother, Darren Betts – also a talented rugby and footballer who played for

in the 1990s. Betts was himself a former

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

youth team player. Betts signed for Wigan from Leigh Miners ARL (also known as Leigh Rangers) on 14 October 1986.

Playing career

Betts was a part of the hugely successful Wigan team of the 1980s, and 90's, his own medal haul including six

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

s, seven Rugby League

Challenge Cup The Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940, due to World War I and World War II respectively. It involves am ...

s, three Premierships, four John Player/Regal Trophies, and two

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

County Cup The county football associations are the local governing bodies of association football in England and the Crown dependencies. County FAs exist to govern all aspects of football in England. They are responsible for administering club and player ...

. He also received the

Lance Todd Trophy The Lance Todd Trophy is a trophy in rugby league, awarded to the annual Challenge Cup Final's man of the match. Introduced in 1945–46, the trophy was named in memory of Lance Todd, the New Zealand-born player and administrator, who was killed in ...

(1991) and the coveted

Man of Steel Award A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromos ...

(1995). He featured in three

World Club Challenge The World Club Challenge is an annual rugby league competition between the winners of the Australasian National Rugby League (NRL) and the European Super League, for the de facto club world championship of the sport. The first such match was pl ...

matches for Wigan, winning two, against

Penrith Panthers The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith that competes in the NRL. The team is based west of the centre of Sydney, at the foot of the Blue Mountains. Penrith ...

in 1991 and

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Football Club Ltd., commonly referred to as the Broncos, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos play in Australia's elite com ...

in 1994. In 1995, at the height of the

Super League War The Super League war was a commercial competition between the Australian Rugby League (ARL) and the Australian Super League to establish pre-eminence in professional rugby league competition in Australia and New Zealand in the mid-1990s. Super ...

he signed a lucrative deal with the

, one of the new clubs, coached by former Wigan coach John Monie. Later that year Betts became the first player to win both

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

caps while not playing in the English leagues. With former Wigan team-mate

Shaun Edwards Shaun Edwards, OBE (born 17 October 1966) is an English rugby union coach and former rugby league player, who is the defence coach for the France national team. A or , Edwards is the most decorated player in rugby league history, with 37 wi ...

ruled out by injury, Betts captained England from the second row in the 1995 Rugby League World Cup Final at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

, but

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

won the match 16–8 and retained the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

. Betts' selection as captain of England meant he was the first player given the honour while not playing in the English leagues. During the 1996 Auckland Warriors season Betts captained the club. He was selected as vice captain for the 1996 Great Britain Lions tour of Papua New Guinea, Fiji and New Zealand, playing in all Tests against host nations at . The 1997 season was Betts' last with the Auckland Warriors as he returned to England to continue playing for Wigan. Betts returned to play in the 1998 Wigan Warriors season in Europe's

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

competition, and played in the side which lost the 1998 Challenge Cup Final to

Sheffield Eagles The Sheffield Eagles are a professional rugby league club that play in the Championship (rugby league), Betfred Championship. The club play their home games at the Olympic Legacy Park (OLP) on the former site of Don Valley Stadium, their forme ...

. He missed Wigan's 1998 Super League Grand Final victory that year through injury. Betts scored Wigan's opening try in the last game at

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, and their first try at the

JJB Stadium The DW Stadium is a stadium in Robin Park, in Wigan, within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The ground is owned and managed by Wigan Football Company Limited, which is 85% owned by Wigan Athletic and 15% owned ...

. At the end of 1999's

Super League IV JJB Sports Super League IV was the official name for the year 1999's Super League championship season, the 105th season of top-level professional rugby league football in Britain, and the fourth championship run by the Super League. The start of ...

, Betts was selected to play for Great Britain in the 1999 Tri-Nations tournament in both of their matches against New Zealand and Australia. Betts played for Wigan in their

2000 Super League Grand Final The 2000 Super League Grand Final was the third official Grand Final and the conclusive and championship-deciding game of 2000's Super League V. Held on Saturday 14 October 2000 at Old Trafford, Manchester, the game was played between St. Helens ...

loss to St. Helens, and their 2001 Grand Final loss to the

Bradford Bulls The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is predom ...

. He was persuaded to retire from playing at the age of 32, to help Wigan get under the salary cap. In total, Betts made 32 appearances for Great Britain, the joint highest ever for a forward, and toured three times, in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

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and 1996. He also captained England in the

World Cup Final, which they lost to Australia at Wembley in front of 66,540 fans.

Coaching career

At the end of 2001, Betts moved into coaching as Under-18s coach at the Wigan Warriors, and progressed to under-21s, which he led to victory in the 2003 U21 Grand Final. In July 2003,

Stuart Raper Stuart may refer to: Names *Stuart (name), a given name and surname (and list of people with the name) Automobile * Stuart (automobile) Places Australia Generally *Stuart Highway, connecting South Australia and the Northern Territory Northe ...

was sacked as the Wigan Warriors coach, and he was replaced by

Mike Gregory Michael Keith Gregory (20 May 1964 – 19 November 2007) was an English professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s, and coached in the 1990s and 2000s. He played for Warrington from 1982 to 1994, and won 20 caps fo ...

. Gregory then appointed Betts as his assistant. the Wigan Warriors' results improved and they went on reach the Grand Final, only to lose to

. The following season, the Wigan Warriors reached another final, losing this time to St. Helens in the

Final. Betts then took temporary charge in May 2004 when Gregory stepped down due to illness. He held the position for a year before he was moved sideways by the club to make way for the appointment of new head coach

Ian Millward Ian "Basil"/"Minibus" Millward (born 22 August 1960) is an Australian rugby league coach, occasional pundit and former player. Millward is now the assistant coach of St George Illawarra in the NRL Millward is the former head coach of Wigan, S ...

, who had left St. Helens just two weeks earlier and was recruited for his experience. Betts continued to work under Millward until the end of the 2005's Super League X but left in November after refusing to take a post as coach of the academy Under-21 team. In January 2006 he took up a post as skills and development coach with

Guinness Premiership Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

club

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

, a position which he left during June 2010, despite having another year on his contract. Speaking about his time at Gloucester, he said ''"It's a really passionate place and I hope they can get the success they deserve. I really enjoyed the place, especially the match-day atmosphere and the Shed."'' While at Gloucester, Betts emerged as a surprise contender for the vacant England coaching job, which he applied for in March 2010, ultimately losing out to

Steve McNamara Steve McNamara (born 18 September 1971) is an English professional rugby league football coach who is the head coach of the Catalans Dragons in the Betfred Super League and a former professional player. He is a former coach of England, and a Gr ...

. In November 2010, Betts was appointed coach of

club; the Widnes Vikings. In May 2011, he was reappointed to manage the Widnes Vikings into the Super League in 2012. Betts was appointed assistant coach to Wayne Bennett with England in April 2016. England finished third in the 2016 Four Nations, and were runners-up in the 2017 World Cup. In May 2018 the Widnes Vikings terminated Betts' contract with immediate effect. Due to the Widnes Vikings poor run with winning only three games out of twelve.

References

External links

Denis Betts Wigan Playing Career Page
on the Wigan RL Fansite.
Denis Betts Wigan Coaching Career Page
on the Wigan RL Fansite. *(archived by web.archive.org
When Britain defeated the Aussies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Betts, Denis 1969 births Living people England national rugby league team captains England national rugby league team players English rugby league coaches English rugby league players Great Britain national rugby league team players Great Britain under-21 national rugby league team players Lance Todd Trophy winners New Zealand Warriors captains New Zealand Warriors players Newcastle Thunder coaches Rugby league players from Salford Rugby league second-rows Widnes Vikings coaches Wigan Warriors coaches Wigan Warriors players