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

coach and former player. Amor played in the scrum-half and fly-half positions for London Scottish and captained the

England national rugby sevens team The England national rugby sevens team competes in the Rugby World Cup Sevens and the Commonwealth Games. They have once won the Rugby World Cup Sevens — the inaugural tournament in 1993. Historically the team also competed in the World Rugby ...

. He has been the head coach of London Scottish, England sevens,

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

, and, as recently as 2020, was appointed defence-coach for the

England rugby union team The England national rugby union team represents the Rugby Football Union (RFU) in international rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. England have won the championshi ...

Early life

Amor was educated at Denmead Preparatory School,

Hampton School Hampton School is a fee-charging, boys-only private day school in Hampton, London, England. As of the 2024–2025 academic year, the school charges a minimum of £26,040 per year for attendance. Until 1975, the school was a voluntary aided gram ...

, St. Mary's University College (Twickenham) and

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. At Cambridge he earned a

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

playing in the 2000 Varsity Rugby Match for Cambridge University RUFC against

Oxford University RFC The Oxford University Rugby Football Club (Oxford University RFC or OURFC) is the rugby union club of the University of Oxford. The club contests The Varsity Match every year against Cambridge University at Twickenham. History Men's team ...

Twickenham Stadium Twickenham Stadium (; usually known as Twickenham, and for sponsorship purposes known as the Allianz Stadium Twickenham) is a rugby union stadium in Twickenham, London, England. It is owned by the Rugby Football Union (RFU), the English rugby u ...

and went on to graduate with a degree in

Management Studies Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administr ...

. 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 that most recently competed in the Premiership Rugby, Premiership, the top division of rugby union in England. The club also participated in the European Rugby Champions Cup, European Champion ...

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, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

. He has previously played for Harlequins,

, Blackheath,

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

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. The club plays in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby union. It was formed in 1880 as "Northampton St. ...

. In August 2002, Amor represented the England Sevens at the

2002 Commonwealth Games The 2002 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XVII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Manchester 2002, were an international multi-sport event for the members of the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth held in Manchester, England, ...

.He played again at the

2006 Commonwealth Games The 2006 Commonwealth Games, officially the XVIII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Melbourne 2006, were an International sport, international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth held in Melbourne ...

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 Great Britain, 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 invitatio ...

at Twickenham. In December 2004, Amor was the inaugural IRB Sevens Player of the Year. Amor captained England to win the Hong Kong 7s 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 T ...

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

England

Amor was Head Coach of the England women sevens team at the

2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens The 2009 Rugby sevens World Cup was the fifth edition of the Rugby World Cup Sevens. The International Rugby Board (IRB) selected Dubai in the United Arab Emirates as the host venue for the tournament ahead of bids from four other countries. The f ...

. 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 won a silver medal at the Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil. 2017 saw England finish 2nd in the

World Rugby Sevens Series The SVNS, known as the HSBC SVNS for sponsorship reasons, 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 ...

, equaling their highest ever finish. The previous time this was achieved was in 2006 when Amor was captain of the squad. England were runners up at the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens. Amor coached the men's seven teams to qualification for the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

, but moved on to coach the 15s game before the event. In January 2020, he was appointed attack coach of the England Rugby team, under Eddie Jones where the team won the 2020 Six Nations Championship and the Autumn Nations Cup. He left the role in May 2021, following England's poor showing in the

2021 Six Nations The 2021 Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Six Nations for sponsorship reasons) was the 22nd Six Nations Championship, the annual rugby union competition contested by the national teams of England national rugby union team, England, ...

Other sevens coaching

Amor is currently the head coach of the men's United States national rugby sevens team. After being appointed the coach of

in mid-2021 for a brief spell, Amor went back to coaching sevens rugby, being the ''technical director'' of

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

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 axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

. 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 north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

. On 30 September 2024

USA Rugby USA Rugby (formally the United States of America Rugby Football Union, Ltd.) is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States. Its role is to achieve and maintain “high levels of quality in all aspects of rugby ...

announced Amor's appointment as its national rugby sevens coach. In May 2025 he was appointed to a new post with Hong Kong Rugby Union - again.

References

External links

* * * *
Gloucester Profile
* *
Guinness Premiership profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Amor, Simon 1979 births Living people Alumni of St Mary's University, Twickenham Alumni of the University of Cambridge Cambridge University R.U.F.C. players Coaches of international rugby sevens teams Commonwealth Games silver medallists in rugby sevens Commonwealth Games rugby sevens players for 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 Olympic coaches for Great Britain People educated at Hampton School People from Kingston upon Thames Rugby sevens players at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Rugby union fly-halves Rugby union players from the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames Wasps RFC players World Rugby Awards winners Medallists at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Coaches at the 2024 Summer Olympics