Simon Daniel Edward Amor (born 25 April 1979) is an 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 ...

coach and former player. Amor played in the scrum-half and

fly-half In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16– ...

positions for London Scottish and captained the

England national rugby sevens team 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 ...

. He has been the head coach of London Scottish,

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 ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

, and, as recently as 2020, was appointed defence-coach for the England rugby union team.

Early life

Amor was educated at Denmead Preparatory School,

Hampton School Hampton School (formerly Hampton Grammar School) is an independent boys' day school in Hampton, Greater London, England. It is regarded as one of the top independent schools in the country. Hampton School’s A-Level and GCSE results in 2021 ...

St. Mary's University College (Twickenham) St Mary's University, Twickenham is a public university in Strawberry Hill, London, Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, in South West London committed to the mission of the Catholic Church in higher education. Originally founded in 1850, and initially a c ...

and

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

. At Cambridge he earned a

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...

playing in the 2000 Varsity Rugby Match for Cambridge University RFC against Oxford University RFC at

Twickenham Stadium Twickenham Stadium () in Twickenham, south-west London, England, is a rugby union stadium owned by the Rugby Football Union (RFU), English rugby union governing body, which has its headquarters there. The England national rugby union team plays ...

and went on to graduate with a degree in

Management Studies Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

. He also completed an MBA whilst playing professional rugby.

Playing career

Amor started his rugby career at

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club which competes in the Premiership, the top division of English rugby union. The club has also competed in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, the European Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup. While ...

where he played as a junior before joining the senior squad. During the summer of 2002, Amor signed a professional contract with

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 ...

. He has previously played for Harlequins,

, Blackheath,

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...

and the Rugby Lions. Whilst at Gloucester he was a replacement in the 2003 Powergen Cup Final in which Gloucester defeated

Northampton Saints Northampton Saints (officially Northampton Rugby Football Club) is a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. They were formed in 1880 as "Northampton St. James", ...

. In August 2002, Amor represented the

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 ...

at the

2002 Commonwealth Games The 2002 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XVII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Manchester 2002 were held in Manchester, England, from 25 July to 4 August, 2002. The 2002 Games were to be hosted in the United Kingdom to coin ...

.He played again at the 2006 Commonwealth Games winning a silver medal. In 2003 he was part of the England squad to face the

Barbarian F.C. The Barbarian Football Club, known as the Barbarians is a British-based invitational rugby union club. The Barbarians play in black and white hoops, though players wear socks from their own club strip. Membership is by invitation. As of 2011, p ...

at Twickenham. In December 2004, Amor was the inaugural

IRB Sevens Player of the Year The World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year is awarded by World Rugby each year. It was first awarded in 2004. The award is based in large part on the player’s performance over the course of the World Rugby Sevens Series, along with other Sevens to ...

. Amor captained England to win the

Hong Kong 7s The Hong Kong Sevens () is an rugby sevens tournament held annually in Hong Kong on a weekend in late March or early April. Considered the premier tournament on the World Rugby Sevens Series competition, the Hong Kong Sevens is currently the s ...

four times. In August 2005, Amor was instrumental in

's victory at the

Middlesex Sevens The Middlesex Sevens was a Rugby Sevens tournament held annually at Twickenham stadium in London, England until 2011. It was first held in 1926, and started by Dr J.A. Russell-Cargill, a London-based Scot.Bath, ''Scotland Rugby Miscellany'', p82 Th ...

. In May 2006, Amor joined London Wasps, as replacement for their retiring scrum-half,

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 ...

. In August 2006, Amor was the key playmaker in London Wasps's victory at the

Coaching

In 2008, Amor signed as a player/coach for London Scottish. He became a Performance Advisor at UK Sport and was appointed on to the Advisory Board of Ultimate Rugby Sevens. In May 2010, Amor took over the role of Head Coach for London Scottish, and in November 2011, took over the role of Director of Rugby at the club. In 2012 he led them to promotion to the

RFU Championship The RFU Championship is an English rugby union competition comprising twelve clubs. It is the second level of men’s English rugby and is played by both professional and semi-professional players. The competition has existed since 1987, when ...

. He was Head Coach of the England women sevens team at the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens. In September 2013 he took over the role of Head Coach of the

and was the longest serving England 7s coach. He was responsible for bringing together the men's and women's programs and oversaw them both. In 2016, Amor was appointed Head Coach of the Great Britain Sevens team who went on to win a silver medal at the Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil. 2017 saw England finish 2nd in the

World Rugby Sevens Series The World Rugby Men's Sevens Series is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World Sevens Series, the com ...

, equaling their highest ever finish. The previous time this was achieved was in 2006 when Amor was captain of the squad. In 2018 England were runners up at the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens. 2019 saw both the men's and the women's sevens teams qualify for

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

. In 2020, he was appointed attack coach of the

England Rugby The England national rugby union team represents England in men's international rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. England have won the championship on 29 occasions ...

team, under Eddie Jones where the team won the 2020 6 Nations Championship and the

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- ...

. He left the role in May 2021. He is currently the head coach of the

Japan national rugby sevens team The Japan national rugby sevens team participates in competitions such as the World Rugby Sevens Series and the Rugby World Cup Sevens. Tournament history Summer Olympic Games Rugby World Cup Sevens Asian Games Hong Kong Sevens Japan ...

. After being appointed the coach of

in mid-2021 for a brief spell, Amor went back into coaching sevens rugby, being the ''technical director'' of Japan starting in November 2021. Amor remained in the role throughout the teams World Rugby Sevens

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

. In September 2022, before the beginning of the following season (2022–23), Amor was appointed head coach of the sevens team by the JRFU. It is Amor's third national sevens team he has coached, and the first outside

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 i ...

References

External links

* * * *
Gloucester Profile
* *
Guinness Premiership profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Amor, Simon 1979 births Living people British Olympic coaches Cambridge University R.U.F.C. players Coaches of international rugby sevens teams Commonwealth Games medallists in rugby sevens Commonwealth Games rugby sevens players of England Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England Coventry R.F.C. players England international rugby sevens players English rugby union coaches English rugby union players Gloucester Rugby players Harlequin F.C. players London Irish players London Scottish F.C. players Male rugby sevens players People educated at Hampton School Rugby sevens players at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Rugby union fly-halves Rugby union players from Kingston upon Thames Wasps RFC players World Rugby Awards winners

Early life

Playing career

Coaching

See also

References

External links