Richard Agar (born 20 January 1972) is an English professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

coach who is the former

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

of the

Leeds Rhinos The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club play their home games at Headingley Rugby Stadium, AMT Headingley Rugby Stadium and compete in the Super League, the top tier of British rugby lea ...

in the

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

and a former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He played at club level for the

Dewsbury Dewsbury is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder, West Yorkshire, River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, ...

(

Rams In engineering, reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS)Featherstone Rovers Featherstone Rovers are a professional rugby league club in Featherstone, West Yorkshire, England. The club play home games at Post Office Road and currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of British rugby league. Featherstone ...

(two spells), the

Widnes Vikings The Widnes Vikings are an English rugby league club in Widnes, Cheshire, which competes in the RFL Championship, Betfred Championship. The club plays home matches at DCBL Stadium. Founded as Widnes Football Club, they are one of the original twe ...

and the

Rochdale Hornets The Rochdale Hornets are a professional rugby league club from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England, competing in the League 1, the third tier of European rugby league. The Rochdale Hornets are one of the original twenty-two rugby clubs tha ...

, and has coached at representative level for

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, and at club level for the

York City Knights The York Knights are the men's professional rugby league team of York RLFC, based in York, England. The club play their home games at York Community Stadium and currently compete in the RFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of Briti ...

, Hull F.C. (two spells, initially as Assistant Coach), the Wakefield Trinity Wildcats, and

Warrington Wolves Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league club based in Warrington, England. They play home games at the Halliwell Jones Stadium and compete in Super League, the top tier of British rugby league system, British rugby league. Warringto ...

(First Team Coach ).

Background

Richard Agar's birth was registered in

Pontefract Pontefract is a historic market town in the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district in West Yorkshire, England. It lies to the east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the ...

district,

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...

, England. He is the son of the rugby league footballer and coach; Allan Agar.

Playing career

Agar played for

Featherstone Rovers Featherstone Rovers are a professional rugby league club in Featherstone, West Yorkshire, England. The club play home games at Post Office Road and currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of British rugby league. Featherstone ...

Dewsbury Rams The Dewsbury Rams are a professional rugby league club based in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, England that compete in RFL League 1, League One, the third tier of British rugby league system, British rugby league. History 1875–1887: Dewsbury Athl ...

and

, where he played 16 games in 2001 and won a

Northern Ford Premiership The Rugby Football League Championship Second Division was founded in 1902 and was the second tier of professional rugby league in the UK until 2003. During the 1990s a third division was established and there is automatic promotion between ...

Grand Final winners medal, but he turned down the opportunity to play for Widnes Vikings in 2002's Super League VII. Agar made his début for

on Sunday 16 June 2002, and he played his last match for Featherstone Rovers during the 2003 season.

Coaching career

He spent four years as assistant coach at Hull F.C. under John Kear and Peter Sharp. In 2008 Hull F.C. appointed Richard Agar as their Head Coach following the departure of Sharp. In September 2011 it was announced that Agar had signed a three-year deal with Wakefield Trinity Wildcats, and would become their head coach following the end of the 2011 season. In February 2013, it was announced that Agar would coach

for the

2013 Rugby League World Cup The 2013 Rugby League World Cup was the fourteenth World Cup for men’s national rugby league teams. It took place between the 26 October and 30 November and was hosted by England and Wales (although some games were played in France and Ire ...

. Agar coached

to the World Cup Quarter-Final On 2 June 2014, Agar quit his job with Wakefield Trinity Wildcats with immediate effect and was replaced by his assistant James Webster. On 10 June 2014, it was confirmed Agar would become first team coach of

for the 2015 Super League season working alongside Tony Smith. On 29 August 2016, Agar resigned as head coach of the French national team. It is believed he left because new Fédération Française de Rugby à XIII president Marc Palanques wanted a Frenchman to coach the national team. On 17 October 2020, he coached Leeds in the 2020 Challenge Cup Final victory over Salford at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

. In the

2021 Super League season Super League XXVI, known as the 2021 Betfred Super League XXVI for sponsorship reasons, was the 26th season of the Super League and 127th season of rugby league in Great Britain. The 2021 season was originally scheduled to begin on 11 March 2021 ...

, he guided Leeds to a fifth-placed finish on the table as the club qualified for the playoffs. On 21 March 2022, Agar announced he would step down as

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

head coach with immediate effect. On 3 August 2022, Agar was announced as assistant coach for the

New Zealand Warriors The Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as the Aucklan ...

on a two-year deal commencing in 2023. He will join new Warriors head coach Andrew Webster, his fellow Toa Samoa assistant coach and younger brother his former assistant James.

References

External links

Leeds Rhinos profileHull FC profileHull Appoint Agar As Head CoachStatistics at rugby.widnes.tv
{{DEFAULTSORT:Agar, Richard 1972 births Living people Dewsbury Rams players English rugby league coaches English rugby league players Featherstone Rovers players France national rugby league team coaches Hull F.C. coaches Leeds Rhinos coaches Rochdale Hornets players Rugby league players from Pontefract Wakefield Trinity coaches Widnes Vikings players York Knights coaches