Neil George Doak (born 21 June 1972)
/ref> is a Northern Irish former

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

er and

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 ...

player. He currently works as a rugby union coach, and has served as attack and backs coach with English club side

Worcester Warriors Worcester Warriors Rugby Football Club is a professional rugby union club, based in Worcester, England, that is currently in administration and which has been suspended and will be relegated from Premiership Rugby, the top division of domestic ...

, and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

during the 2020

Autumn Nations Cup The Autumn Nations Cup was a rugby union competition held in November and December 2020 in place of the usual Autumn internationals series typically held in the same period each year, as many teams were avoiding extended travel due to the COVID- ...

. Doak previously worked as attack and backs coach of Irish provincial side Ulster from 2008 to 2017, where he also spent his professional playing career. During his time with Ulster, he had brief stints as a coach with and

Emerging Ireland Emerging Ireland is an Irish rugby union team that represents Ireland in the World Rugby Nations Cup. History 2013 Tbilisi Cup The team was created to offer Tier 1 level opposition for Tier 2 sides in the IRB Tbilisi Cup, held in Tbilisi, Georgia ...

Rugby union

Playing career

Doak played at amateur level for four Irish clubs, all based in Ulster. These were

North of Ireland FC North of Ireland Football Club is a former Irish rugby union club that was based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was the first rugby club formed in what is now Northern Ireland and only two other clubs - Dublin University and Wanderers - wer ...

Ballymena RFC Ballymena Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club based in the town of Ballymena, Northern Ireland, playing in Division 2A of the All-Ireland League. It is affiliated to the Ulster branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union. The club fields fiv ...

Malone RFC Malone RFC (Malone Rugby Football Club) is a rugby union club based in Belfast, in Northern Ireland. It is currently in the Division 1B of the All-Ireland League. The club is affiliated with the Ulster Branch, itself part of the Irish Rugby ...

and

Belfast Harlequins Belfast Harlequins is a multi-sports club located off the Malone Road in south Belfast, Northern Ireland. The club name provides the overall umbrella for rugby union, men's and ladies' hockey, and squash. The club is associated on and off the f ...

. In addition to these clubs, Doak also played for the Ulster provincial side. He played 76 times for Ulster, before retiring in April 2005. Doak came close to representing his country at international level. He was named in the

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

squad for the

2002 Six Nations Championship The 2002 Six Nations Championship was the third series of rugby union's Six Nations Championship, the 108th international championship overall. The annual tournament was won by France, who completed a grand slam. Participants The teams involved w ...

, the 2003 World Cup and was named as a substitute for a match against Fiji in 1995, but never earned a senior cap for the Ireland side. Had he played for the Ireland team, he would have become the first Irish dual cricket/rugby union international since

Raymond Hunter William Raymond Hunter (3 April 1938 – 9 December 2020) was a Northern Irish cricketer and rugby union player. He played for Ireland in both sports. In cricket he won 28 international caps and played in 11 first-class matches. In rugby h ...

in the 1960s.

Coaching career

Following his retirement from playing, Doak began working as part of Ulster's academy system. He served as an Elite Player Development Officer and head coach of the under-19 and under-20 sides. Doak was promoted to the senior set up in 2007, taking the role of skills coach and managing the province's second-tier side, Ulster A. In 2008 he was promoted again, this time becoming the team's attack and backs coach. During his time with Ulster, Doak also took up temporary roles within the Irish setup. In 2013, he served as 's backs coach during their tour to North America. In 2014, he served as backs coach to

in the 2014 IRB Nations Cup. In the summer of 2014, Ulster sacked head coach Mark Anscombe on short notice. Ireland defence coach

Les Kiss Les Kiss (born 9 December 1964) is an Australian professional rugby union coach who is the head coach of London Irish in the Gallagher Premiership. He is a former professional rugby league footballer who played in the Brisbane Rugby League and ...

took over as director of rugby on an interim basis for the start of the 2014–15 season. In October 2014, Kiss returned to his position with the Ireland team, with and Doak took over the role of head coach. It was announced that Kiss would return to his role with Ulster on a full-time basis following the 2015 World Cup, leaving Doak in charge of the province for the remainder of the season and the start of the 2015–16 campaign. He served in this role under Kiss until the end of the 2016–17 season, when he was replaced by

Jono Gibbes Jonathan Brian Gibbes (born 22 January 1977) is a rugby union former player and coach. He is a former New Zealand rugby union player who captained , the Chiefs and the Māori All Blacks, and appeared in various All Blacks teams. He is the form ...

. In March 2018, it was announced that Doak had joined

English Premiership The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

side

. He was hired as attack and backs coach, taking up the role for the 2018–19 season. He left Worcester at the end of the 2019–20 season. Doak coached

during the 2020

Cricket

In addition to playing rugby, Doak was also an accomplished cricketer, representing

internationally. A right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

and

off spin Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which spi ...

bowler, he made his debut for the Irish cricket team in June 1993, playing against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

CricketEurope Stats Zone profile
/ref> in a first-class match.First-class matches played by Neil Doak at Cricket Archive
/ref> He went on to play for Ireland on 32 occasions, his last match coming against

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

in June 2000, though this was more than three years after his previous appearance in the third place play-off of the

1997 ICC Trophy The Carlsberg 1997 ICC Trophy was a cricket tournament played in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia between 24 March and 13 April 1997. It was the Cricket World Cup qualification tournament for the 1999 Cricket World Cup. Bangladesh were the winners of the t ...

against Scotland. Of Doak's matches for Ireland, two were first-class matches against Scotland, and three had List A status. In all matches for Ireland, he scored 479 runs at an average of 26.61, his highest score being 84

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

against Surrey in a Benson & Hedges Cup match on 14 May 1996, an innings for which he won the

man of the match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

award, despite finishing on the losing side. He took 31 wickets, at an average of 21.84, with his best bowling figures being four wickets for nine runs against

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

in the 1996 European Championship and against

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

in the

.Scorecard of Ireland v Israel from the 1997 ICC Trophy at Cricket Archive
/ref> Doak played for Ireland in three international tournaments; the

1994 ICC Trophy The 1994 ICC Trophy (formally the ABN AMRO ICC Trophy) was a cricket tournament that took place in Kenya between 12 February and 6 March 1994. It was the fifth ICC Trophy tournament to be staged, and acted as the Cricket World Cup qualification to ...

,ICC Trophy matches played by Neil Doak at Cricket Archive
/ref> the 1996 European Championship, during which he won a man of the match award for a performance against

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

where he took 4/44 and scored 51 not out, and the 1997 ICC Trophy, during which he won a man of the match award for the above-mentioned performance against Israel.

Family

Doak's son

Nathan Nathan or Natan may refer to: People *Nathan (given name), including a list of people and characters with this name *Nathan (surname) *Nathan (prophet), a person in the Hebrew Bible * Nathan (son of David), biblical figure, son of King David an ...

is a professional rugby union player, playing scrum half for

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

and the

Ireland national under-20 rugby union team The Ireland national under-20 rugby team was formed in 2006, having previously been known as the under-21 team. They have won the Grand Slam three times and the Six Nations Championship four times: 2007, 2010, 2019 and 2022. Current squad Head c ...

. Another son, Cameron, plays prop, and joined the Ulster Rugby academy in 2023."Ulster Rugby Academy 2023/24 squad confirmed"
Ulster Rugby, 29 June 2023

References