Allen Clarke (born 29 July 1967) is an Irish

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. He is the current head coach of the Seattle Seawolves of

Major League Rugby Major League Rugby (MLR) is a professional rugby union competition in the United States. The league comprises 11 teams. While operating outside of the governance and oversight of the national governing body, the league is officially sanctioned ...

(MLR). He is the former head coach of Welsh professional side the Ospreys in the

Pro14 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

, having previously been the team's forwards coach.

Playing career

During his playing career, Clarke was a hooker. He was capped at international level by , playing for the senior team eight times from 1995 to 1998. Clarke spent the much of his professional playing career with his native province of

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

and played in the 1999 Heineken Cup Final victory against Colomiers, the first ever European title for an Irish side. He also spent several seasons with

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 England across two spells, having studied at the university in the town and later worked as a teacher there. Clarke was forced to retire due to injury in 2001.

Coaching

After his retirement from playing Clarke became a part of the Ulster coaching system, helping to establish the province's academy system. He was promoted to assistant coach under his former teammate Mark McCall, and served in this role during Ulster's 2005–06 Celtic League title-winning season. Following this success Clarke was hired by the IRFU as an Elite Player Development Manager, a newly created role with the directive of developing young Irish players. He also served as head coach of the Irish under-20 team and the Irish 'A' side during his time with the union. Following five years in his role with the IRFU, Clarke returned to Ulster in 2012 as an assistant under Mark Anscombe. Clarke continued in this role under Anscombe's successors, Neil Doak and Les Kiss. During his second stint with Ulster Doak continued to be involved with the Irish set up on occasion, serving as head coach of Emerging Ireland during their successful 2015 Tbilisi Cup campaign. Clarke left Ulster in 2017, joining the Ospreys as forwards coach under Steve Tandy. In January 2018, Tandy was sacked, with Clarke named as his successor on an interim basis. Following a successful stint in the role, Clarke became the head coach position on a permanent basis, signing a three-year deal with the region in April 2018, but was terminated in November 2019 after a dire start to their 2019–20 season. In June 2020, Clarke was announced as the head coach of the

Dallas Jackals The Dallas Jackals were a Major League Rugby team that began play in the 2022 Major League Rugby season, 2022 season as an expansion franchise. They were originally going to join the MLR for the 2021 Major League Rugby season, 2021 season, but on ...

, a new

expansion team. The team's entry into the league was delayed to 2022 and Clarke went to the

Seattle Seawolves The Seattle Seawolves are an American professional rugby union team based in the Seattle metropolitan area that competes in Major League Rugby (MLR). The team was founded in 2017. The Seawolves won two MLR championships in 2018 and 2019, and los ...

on loan beginning in May 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Allen 1967 births Living people Dungannon RFC players Ulster Rugby non-playing staff Ulster Rugby players Northampton Saints players Irish rugby union players Ireland international rugby union players Irish rugby union coaches Ospreys (rugby union) coaches Rugby union hookers People educated at the Royal School Dungannon Major League Rugby coaches