Les Cusworth (born 31 July 1954) is a former English

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 it ...

footballer and current Argentine Director of Rugby.

Education

He was educated at Normanton Grammar School and the West Midlands College of Education, a teacher training college (now part of the

University of Wolverhampton The University of Wolverhampton is a public university located on four campuses across the West Midlands, Shropshire and Staffordshire in England. The roots of the university lie in the Wolverhampton Tradesmen's and Mechanics' Institute founde ...

Playing career

He started his club career at

Wakefield RFC Wakefield RFC was an English rugby union club, founded in 1901 and folded in 2004 as a result of poor finances, with a trading loss of £105,000 for the season and unsecured creditors' loans of approximately £640,000. The club's final season w ...

where he set the British club record of 25

drop goal A drop goal, field goal, or dropped goal is a method of scoring points in rugby union and rugby league and also, rarely, in American football and Canadian football. A drop goal is scored by drop kicking the ball (dropping the ball and then kicki ...

s in just 21 games in the 1974–75 season and helped Wakefield reach the semi finals of the

John Player Cup The Anglo-Welsh Cup (), was a cross-border rugby union knock-out cup competition that featured the 12 Premiership Rugby clubs and the four Welsh regions. It was a created as a replacement for the RFU Knockout Cup, which featured only English club ...

in 1975–76. He later moved to

Moseley Moseley is a suburb of south Birmingham, England, south of the city centre. The area is a popular cosmopolitan residential location and leisure destination, with a number of bars and restaurants. The area also has a number of boutiques and ot ...

and Leicester Tigers from where he won 12

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 ...

caps over nine years (1979–1988), although he was never really favoured by the English management as he was an unpredictable running fly half. He played 365 times for

Tigers The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on un ...

scoring 947 points, and playing alongside

Paul Dodge Paul William Dodge (born 26 February 1958 in Leicester, England) is a former English rugby union international footballer who gained 32 caps for his country between 1978 and 1985. His Leicester Tigers career earned him 436 appearances. Dodg ...

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 ...

Nick Youngs Nicholas Gerald Youngs (born 15 December 1959) is an English former rugby union footballer who played for Bedford, Leicester Tigers and England, at Scrum-half, gaining six England caps in 1983–1984. He also was an unused England reserve fi ...

in Tigers' three-time John Player Cup winning sides between 1979 and 1981. He also played for English Colleges, British Colleges,

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

, North East Counties and played in the

North Midlands The North Midlands is a loosely defined area covering the northern parts of the Midlands in England. It is not one of the ITL regions like the East Midlands or the West Midlands. A statistical definition in 1881 included the counties of Derbys ...

team which won the county championships in 1978.

After retirement

After retiring from playing, he coached an

England sevens The England national rugby sevens team competes in the World Rugby Sevens Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens and the Commonwealth Games. England's best finish in the Sevens Series is second place, which they have achieved four times, most recently i ...

team, including

Lawrence Dallaglio Lorenzo Bruno Nero Dallaglio (born 10 August 1972), known as Lawrence Dallaglio, is an English retired rugby union player, former captain of England, and 2016 inductee of the World Rugby Hall of Fame. He played as a flanker or number eight ...

and

Matt Dawson Matthew James Sutherland Dawson, MBE (born 31 October 1972) is an English retired rugby union player who played scrum half for Northampton Saints and then London Wasps. During his international career he toured with the British & Irish Lion ...

to an unexpected World Cup victory at Murrayfield in 1993. He was director of rugby at Worcester RFC before working freelance and as a rugby

public speaker Public speaking, also called oratory or oration, has traditionally meant the act of speaking face to face to a live audience. Today it includes any form of speaking (formally and informally) to an audience, including pre-recorded speech deliver ...

before taking over as Director of Rugby at the Argentina Rugby Union.

References

External links

Rugby Heroes profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cusworth, Les 1954 births Living people Wakefield RFC players Moseley Rugby Football Club players English rugby union players England international rugby union players Leicester Tigers players Rugby union fly-halves English rugby union coaches Alumni of the University of Wolverhampton Sportspeople from Normanton, West Yorkshire Rugby union players from Wakefield