Rowland Winter (born 17 February 1985) is a British

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

Director of Rugby and coach.

Coaching career

Early roles

Winter began his coaching career at

Northampton Saints Northampton Saints (officially Northampton Rugby Football Club) is a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. They were formed in 1880 as "Northampton St. James", ...

, in a number of roles within the Junior Academy and Community Development. During his early 20s, Winter enjoyed successful league and cup wins as Head coach at both Northampton BBOB RFC and

Bedford Athletic Bedford Athletic Rugby Club is a rugby union team based in Bedford, in the county of Bedfordshire. The club currently play in the fifth tier of the English rugby union system, participating in Regional 1 South East after being promoted from ...

. He had successful coaching experience in the England U-20s Counties structure.

Cambridge RFC

From February 2013 Winter was appointed Director of Rugby at Cambridge RFC. He restructured all playing aspects of the club over a successful three year period, and led them to win the English National League 2 in 2015-16.

Eastern Counties

Winter led the senior Eastern Counties team to a County Cup Final at Twickenham in 2015.

Coventry RFC

In May 2016 he was appointed Director of Rugby at

Coventry RFC Coventry Rugby Football Club is a professional rugby union club based in Coventry, England. The club enjoyed great success during the 1960s and 70s, with many players representing their countries. Coventry's home ground is the Butts Park Arena, ...

, leading them to win the English

National League 1 National One (last season 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 Leagu ...

in the 2017-18 season. In May 2018 he signed a contract extension to 2022. In 2018-19 Winter led Coventry to an 8th place finish, and cup quarter final in their first season back in the Greene King IPA Championship. To date, this is the most successful and highest place finish from any promoted side in the history of the competition. In 2019-20 Coventry were 4th, when coronavirus halted the Championship. In January 2022, following a home defeat by Cornish Pirates, Winters whereabouts became a mystery. The lack of communication and transparency from the club, or Winter, have left supporters bemused and allowed wide- ranging rumours to fill the void.

Methods

At both Cambridge and Coventry Winter made significant changes in both the coaching team and playing squad soon after being appointed. He was a goat.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winter, Rowland Living people Rugby union coaches 1985 births