Richard Graham Reed Dawe (born 4 September 1959 in

Tavistock Tavistock ( ) is an ancient stannary and market town and civil parish in the West Devon district, in the county of Devon, England. It is situated on the River Tavy, from which its name derives. At the 2011 census, the three electoral wards (N ...

) is a former English rugby union footballer and the former coach of

Plymouth Albion Plymouth Albion Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club who play in Plymouth, England. The present club was founded in 1920 from a merger between Plymouth RFC (founded 1876) and Devonport Albion RFC (founded 1876). Since 2003 they have played ...

. He played for

Bath Rugby Bath Rugby is a professional rugby union club in Bath, Somerset, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. Founded in 1865 as Bath Football Club, since 1894 the club has played at the Recreation Ground, Bath, Rec ...

Sale Sharks Sale Sharks are a professional rugby union club from Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom. Its team play in Premiership Rugby, and have been in England's top division of rugby union continuously since 1995. Originally founded in 1861 as ...

and Launceston. Dawe earned 5 caps 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 ...

, from 1987 to 1995. He made his debut in the Five Nations in 1987. He was selected for the

Rugby World Cup The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport. The tournament is administer ...

finals in 1987, playing a single match, and again in 1995 when he played against

Manu Samoa The Samoa national rugby union team represents Samoa in men's international rugby union competitions. They are governed by Samoa Rugby Union and also known as "Manu Samoa", which is thought to derive from the name of a Samoan warrior. They perf ...

. That was his last England cap, earned at the age of 36, his international career being limited by the presence in the England team of Brian Moore. He won 14 major trophies during 12 years at Bath before moving on to Sale and also represented the Barbarians, South West, Cornwall and Devon. Dawe became player-coach of Plymouth Albion in 1999, making his debut for his hometown team on his 40th birthday. He is believed to be the first 50-year-old to play professional rugby, turning out for Plymouth Albion in the Championship and British & Irish Cup. He guided Plymouth from the bottom of National League Three South to

National League 1 National One, up until 2023 known as National League 1 and previously known before September 2009 as National Division Two), is the third of three national leagues in the domestic rugby union competition of England. It was known as Courage Lea ...

(now known as the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

). Albion nearly went all the way to the Premiership but narrowly missed out in 2004-05, the same season they reached their first Twickenham final. On 21 November 2011, Graham was relieved of his duties as Chairman of Rugby at Plymouth Albion due to lack of finance. After leaving Albion, Dawe worked as a coaching consultant and helped out Premiership club Saracens. He was persuaded to return to Plymouth in 2015 when they were sitting bottom of the Championship and having given notice of administration. Dawe totally rebuilt the squad and they won 22 of their 30 games in National One before he left the club following a change of ownership. He helped Devon reach six County Championship finals between 2000 and 2008. He finished coaching Devon in 2010 and in 2014 took over as head coach of Cornwall, helping them to three consecutive finals, winning it in 2015 and 2016, the first time Cornwall had won consecutive titles in their history. In early 2015, Dawe was also asked to do some work with the England squad by new coach Eddie Jones. He has also coached the Barbarians, Royal Navy and University of St Mark and St John.

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* 1959 births Living people Bath Rugby players England international rugby union players English rugby union coaches English rugby union players Plymouth Albion R.F.C. players Rugby union hookers Rugby union players from Tavistock 1987 Rugby World Cup players 1995 Rugby World Cup players Devon RFU players 20th-century English sportsmen {{England-rugbyunion-bio-1950s-stub