Graham Christopher Rowntree (born 18 April 1971) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

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 ...

former player and current head coach of Irish club

Munster Munster ( gle, an Mhumhain or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the south of Ireland. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" ( ga, rí ruirech). Following the ...

. He played loosehead prop for

Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers (officially Leicester Football Club) are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1880 and since 1892 plays its hom ...

and

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 ...

. He was capped 54 times for England, despite having to compete for his position with one of the world's most capped forwards,

Jason Leonard Jason Leonard (born 14 August 1968) is an English former rugby union player. He won a then-record 114 caps for England men’s rugby team during a 14-year international career. A prop, Leonard played club rugby for Barking RFC, Saracens and ...

. Rowntree was born in

Stockton-on-Tees Stockton-on-Tees, often simply referred to as Stockton, is a market town in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham, England. It is on the northern banks of the River Tees, part of the Teesside built-up area. The town had an estimated ...

. He was educated at

John Cleveland College The Hinckley School (formerly John Cleveland College) is a coeducational secondary school located in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England. The school also includes the John Cleveland Sixth Form Centre. Whilst also Exceeding Expectations within ...

Hinckley Hinckley is a market town in south-west Leicestershire, England. It is administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. Hinckley is the third largest settlement in the administrative county of Leicestershire, after Leicester and Loughbor ...

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

, which has also produced other rugby union players.

Career

In 1988 he joined

from

Nuneaton Nuneaton ( ) is a market town in the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth in northern Warwickshire, England, close to the county border with Leicestershire and West Midlands County.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : Nuneaton's ...

and made his first-team debut against Oxford University in 1990. For much of that time he was in harness with the famous ‘ABC club’ alongside

Richard Cockerill Richard Cockerill (born 16 December 1970) is an English rugby union coach and former player, he was the national team's interim head coach between Eddie Jones and Steve Borthwick. He played as a hooker, spending the majority of his career at ...

and

Darren Garforth Darren Garforth (born 9 April 1966) is a former international rugby union player who played tighthead prop for Leicester Tigers and England. Garforth was born in Coventry, signed for Leicester Tigers and made his Leicester debut against Nor ...

. At Leicester Rowntree enjoyed great domestic success, and started both the

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

and

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

Heineken Cup finals. In 1993 he made his England A,

Barbarians A barbarian (or savage) is someone who is perceived to be either uncivilized or primitive. The designation is usually applied as a generalization based on a popular stereotype; barbarians can be members of any nation judged by some to be les ...

and Midlands debuts, and on 18 March 1995 he gained his first full England cap against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

in the

1995 Five Nations Championship The 1995 Five Nations Championship was the 66th Five Nations Championship, the annual Northern Hemisphere rugby union competition contested by the national teams of England, France, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It was also the last Five Nations he ...

as a temporary replacement for

. He subsequently played in the

1995 Rugby World Cup The 1995 Rugby World Cup was the third Rugby World Cup. It was hosted and won by South Africa, and was the first Rugby World Cup in which every match was held in one country. The World Cup was the first major sporting event to take place in Sou ...

. He also made the 1997 British Lions tour to South Africa, playing 6 games and the 1999 Rugby World Cup. After the 1999 World Cup Graham was not capped for almost 2 years until a series of fine performances for his club forced him back into international contention. He was prominent throughout the pre-

2003 Rugby World Cup The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup. Originally planned to be hosted by India, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the Indian Rugby Union and Rugby World Cup ...

years. He was selected for the England squad to tour Canada and the US in

, participated in all that season's Autumn internationals — being named as man of the match in England's 21–15 Cook Cup victory over Australia — and started in each of the 2002 Six Nations games. He started in England's 15–13 win over New Zealand in Wellington in

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

and put in a particularly memorable performance against the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987 ...

when England's pack was reduced to just 6 men. Despite playing in the 2003 pre-World Cup trial match in France, Rowntree was omitted from

Clive Woodward Sir Clive Ronald Woodward (born 6 January 1956) is an English former rugby union player and coach. He was coach of the team from 1997 to 2004, managing them to victory in the 2003 Rugby World Cup. He also coached the 2005 British & Irish Lion ...

's squad, which won the tournament.

admitted that leaving Rowntree behind was one of the hardest decisions he had to make in his time as England head coach. Rowntree returned to the England side in the 2004 Six Nations and was the first-choice loosehead prop for the 2004 Autumn Internationals.

Coaching

Rowntree retired from rugby in 2007 after 17 years playing the game, and he joined the Tigers coaching team where he made a rapid rise up the coaching ranks, becoming the forwards/scrum coach for the English national team ahead of the

2008 Six Nations Championship The 2008 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2008 RBS 6 Nations because of sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the ninth series of the rugby union Six Nations Championship, the 114th series of the international championship. Fifteen ...

. He toured South Africa with the

British & Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The Lions are a test side and most often select players who have already played for their national ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, acting as scrum coach, before being named forwards coach for the winning test series against Australia in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

and scrum coach for the drawn series with New Zealand in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

. Following the resignation of head coach Stuart Lancaster on 11 November 2015, newly appointed head coach Eddie Jones sacked the whole coaching team, with Rowntree leaving his post with England after eight years in December 2015. At the end of the 2015–16 English Premiership season, it was announced that Harlequins had appointed Rowntree as their new forwards coach. Rowntree joined the Georgian national team in 2018, but left after the

2019 Rugby World Cup The 2019 Rugby World Cup was the ninth edition of the Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's rugby union teams. It was hosted in Japan from 20 September to 2 November in 12 venues all across the country. The opening match ...

to join Irish province

as their new forwards coach. He signed a two-year contract extension with Munster in January 2022, and, in April 2022, the province confirmed that Rowntree would replace

Johann van Graan Johann Christoffel van Graan (born 18 March 1980) is a South African rugby union coach, currently the head coach for Bath. Coaching career Van Graan did not have any top level playing career. With family background in rugby, he showed very s ...

as head coach from the 2022–23 season.

Notes

External links

England profile

Rowntree @ Planet Rugby Player stats from Planet Rugby

Sporting heroes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowntree, Graham 1971 births Living people Barbarian F.C. players British & Irish Lions rugby union players from England England international rugby union players English rugby union coaches English rugby union players Leicester Tigers players Rugby union players from Stockton-on-Tees Rugby union props Munster Rugby non-playing staff