Les Cusworth (born 31 July 1954) 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 ...

footballer and current Argentine Director of Rugby.

Education

He was educated at Normanton Grammar School and the West Midlands College of Education, a teacher training college (now part of the

University of Wolverhampton The University of Wolverhampton is a public university in Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, England, located on four campuses across the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, Shropshire and Staffordshire. Originally founded in 1827 as the Wolverham ...

Playing career

He started his club career at

Wakefield RFC Wakefield RFC was an English rugby union club, founded in 1901 and folded in 2004 as a result of poor finances, with a trading loss of £105,000 for the season and unsecured creditors' loans of approximately £640,000. The club's final season w ...

where he set the British club record of 25

drop goal A drop goal, field goal, or dropped goal is a method of scoring points in rugby union and rugby league and also, rarely, in American football and Canadian football. A drop goal is scored by drop kicking the ball (dropping the ball and then kick ...

s in just 21 games in the 1974–75 season and helped Wakefield reach the semi-finals of the

John Player Cup The RFU Knockout Cup was an English rugby union competition open to any member of the Rugby Football Union. First contested in 1971, it was the premier competition in English club rugby before the establishment of the English league structure in 1 ...

in 1975–76. He later moved to

Moseley Moseley ( ') is an affluent suburb in south Birmingham, England, south of the city centre. It is located within the eponymous Moseley ward of the constituency of Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley (UK Parliament constituency), Hall Green and ...

and

Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers (officially Leicester Football Club) are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1880 and since 1892 plays its home ...

from where he won 12

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 ...

caps over nine years (1979–1988), although he was never really favoured by the English management as he was an unpredictable running fly half. He played 365 times for

Tigers The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is a large cat and a member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is tradition ...

scoring 947 points, and playing alongside

Paul Dodge Paul William Dodge (born 26 February 1958 in Leicester, England) is a former English rugby union international footballer who gained 32 caps for his country between 1978 and 1985. His Leicester Tigers career earned him 436 appearances. Dodge s ...

Clive Woodward Sir Clive Ronald Woodward (born 6 January 1956) is an English former rugby union player and coach (sport), coach. He was coach of the team from 1997 to 2004, managing them to victory in the 2003 Rugby World Cup. He also coached the 2005 Britis ...

Nick Youngs Nicholas Gerald Youngs (born 15 December 1959) is an English former rugby union footballer who played for Bedford, Leicester Tigers and England, at Scrum-half, gaining six England caps in 1983–1984. He also was an unused England reserve fi ...

in Tigers' three-time John Player Cup winning sides between 1979 and 1981. He also played for English Colleges, British Colleges,

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, North East Counties and played in the

North Midlands The North Midlands is a loosely defined area covering the northern parts of the Midlands in England. It is not an International Territorial Level region like the East Midlands or the West Midlands. A statistical definition in 1881 included the ...

team which won the county championships in 1978.

After retirement

After retiring from playing, he coached an

England sevens 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 ...

team, including

Lawrence Dallaglio Lorenzo Bruno Nero Dallaglio (born 10 August 1972) is an English retired rugby union player. He is a former captain of England, and a 2016 inductee of the World Rugby Hall of Fame. Dallaglio played as a flanker or number eight for London ...

and

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 Li ...

to an unexpected World Cup victory at Murrayfield in 1993. He was director of rugby at

Worcester RFC Worcester Warriors are a professional rugby union club based in Worcester, England. They most recently played in Premiership Rugby, the top division of English rugby union, before being suspended by the RFU in September 2022 due to financial i ...

before working freelance and as a rugby

public speaker Public speaking, is the practice of delivering speeches to a live audience. Throughout history, public speaking has held significant cultural, religious, and political importance, emphasizing the necessity of effective rhetorical skills. It all ...

before taking over as Director of Rugby at the Argentina Rugby Union.

References

External links

Rugby Heroes profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cusworth, Les 1954 births Living people Wakefield RFC players Birmingham Moseley Rugby players English rugby union players England international rugby union players Leicester Tigers players Rugby union fly-halves English rugby union coaches Alumni of the University of Wolverhampton Sportspeople from Normanton, West Yorkshire Rugby union players from Wakefield North Midlands RFU players 20th-century English sportsmen