Roger Miles Uttley (born 11 September 1949) OBE is a former English

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player.

Career

Uttley played 23 games for

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

both in the second row and the back row, five times as captain, and four tests in the Lions back row on the undefeated 1974 tour to South Africa. Roger was born in

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

, attended Montgomery High School, and Blackpool Grammar School and played first for Fylde then

Gosforth Gosforth is an area of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, situated north of the Newcastle City Centre, City Centre. It constituted a separate Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland), urban district of Northumberland from 1895 until 1974 before of ...

before finishing his career at

Wasps A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...

. He was a member of the famous North team which beat the All Blacks at Otley on 17 November 1979 and went on to play in the England team which won the Grand Slam in 1980, retiring from international rugby later that year. He coached the successful London and South East Divisional side in the mid to late 1980s before working with Geoff Cooke to coach and guide the England XV captained by Will Carling to the final of the 1991 World Cup He was also assistant coach to the victorious 1989 British and Irish Lions tour to Australia. In 1997 he was asked to manage the England XV, a job he enjoyed doing despite it coinciding with the infamous tour to hell. Due to cutbacks within the RFU the post of manager became financially unviable and he lost his position along with 30 other RFU employees. His day job has always been in teaching physical education and for 20 years he was Director of that subject at

Harrow School Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (school founder), John Lyon, a local landowner an ...

. In 2008 he retired to look after his wife and was succeeded by Jesse Coulson. He also taught at Cramlington High School for some years in the 1970s. He is a former president of Sparks and a current council member of the same charity. He is an honorary member of

Wooden Spoon A wooden spoon is a Kitchen utensil, utensil commonly used in food preparation. In addition to its culinary uses, wooden spoons also feature in folk art and culture. History The word ''spoon'' derives from an ancient word meaning a chip of woo ...

the charity for disadvantaged children and young people. In August 2014, Uttley was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Uttley, Roger 1949 births Living people British & Irish Lions rugby union players from England England international rugby sevens players England international rugby union players English rugby union players Fylde Rugby Club players Male rugby sevens players Newcastle Falcons players Officers of the Order of the British Empire Rugby union locks Rugby union players from Blackpool Wasps RFC players Teachers at Harrow School Northumberland RFU players 20th-century English sportsmen