Shaun Edwards,

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(born 17 October 1966) is an 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 ...

coach and former

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 ...

player, who is the defence coach for the France national team. A or , Edwards is the most decorated player in rugby league history, with 37 winner's medals. In 2015, he was the 25th person inducted into the Rugby League Hall of Fame. At schoolboy level, he captained England in both rugby league and rugby union. He played for

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

in 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 ...

and

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 ...

between 1983 and 1997, and also had spells with

Balmain Tigers The Balmain Tigers (also known as the Sydney Tigers from 1995 to 1996) are a rugby league club based in the inner-western Sydney suburb of Balmain, New South Wales, Balmain. They were a founding member of the New South Wales Rugby League and on ...

London Broncos The London Broncos are a professional rugby league club based in Wimbledon, London, Wimbledon, England. They play their home games at Plough Lane and currently compete in the RFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of British rugby le ...

(twice) and

Bradford Bulls The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, and compete in the Championship, the second tier of British rugby league. The club have won the League Championship six times, the Challenge Cup f ...

. Playing for Wigan, Edwards won a record eight

championships 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 ...

, and a record nine

Challenge Cup The Rugby Football League Challenge Cup, commonly known just as the Challenge Cup is a Single-elimination tournament, knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, it is the world's old ...

s. In total he played in eleven Challenge Cup finals, also a record. He was voted Man of Steel in 1990 and is an inductee of the

Wigan Hall of Fame Wigan Warriors is an English professional rugby league club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1872, the club was a founding member of the Rugby Football League, Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895, and competed in the inaugural seaso ...

. Edwards played 36 times for

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

, as well as 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 ...

in 1995 and 1996 and

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

in 1998. In all, he appeared in three

Rugby League World Cup The Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league competition contested by senior men's national teams who each represent member nations of the International Rugby League who run and administer the tournament. The tournament has be ...

s. After retiring from playing he joined London Wasps in rugby union as assistant coach in 2001, and was head coach from 2005 to 2011. During his time at the club, they won two Heineken Cups, four Premiership titles, an Anglo-Welsh trophy and the European Challenge Cup. In 2008, he became Wales' defence coach, and won four Six Nations championships, including three Grand Slams. He was also defence coach for the

British & Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England national rugby union team, England, Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland, Scotland national rugby union team, Scotland, and ...

on their tour of South Africa in 2009. He joined France in 2020 and won the Grand Slam in 2022 and the Six Nations title in 2025.

Early life

Edwards was born in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, England. His father, Jackie Edwards, played for

Warrington Warrington () is an industrial town in the Borough of Warrington, borough of the same name in Cheshire, England. The town sits on the banks of the River Mersey and was Historic counties of England, historically part of Lancashire. It is east o ...

from 1955 to 1964, as a or , until a severe spinal injury ended his career prematurely at age 24. His uncle Bobby Edwards played one match for Warrington in the halves against

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

Wilderspool Stadium Wilderspool Stadium was a rugby league stadium in Warrington, England. The ground was Warrington RLFC's old ground before moving to the Halliwell Jones Stadium. History In 1898, Warrington RLFC moved to the Wilderspool Stadium. A 10-year l ...

on Saturday 23 September 1961. Edwards was England schoolboy captain at both

and

, and had been pursued by several clubs. His younger brother, Billy-Joe, also played rugby league for Wigan until his death, in a car crash, in 2003. His son James was an academy player at Wasps and played at scrum-half. Edwards is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, and his uncle, Fr John Johnson, was the sub-dean of Wigan and the parish priest of St John's and St Mary's churches in the town until he retired in 2023.

Playing career

Edwards signed for Wigan in a blaze of media coverage on his seventeenth birthday; for a fee of £35,000, the largest in history for a schoolboy player. He made his début for the club at in their 30–13 home victory over

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

on 6 November 1983, 20 days after signing for Wigan. Later in the season Wigan reached the final of the

1984 Challenge Cup Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast ...

, and Edwards played at fullback in their loss to Widnes. In the 1984–85 season, Wigan reached the

1985 Challenge Cup The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

Final and Edwards played at , scoring a try in his side's victory. Edwards played in Wigan's 1987 World Club Challenge victory over Sydney's

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL). The Manly club debuted in the 1947 New South Wales Rugby Football League sea ...

. Edwards played for Sydney club the

when they reached the

1989 NSWRL season The 1989 NSWRL season was the 82nd season of professional rugby league football in Australia. Sixteen clubs competed for the New South Wales Rugby League's J.J. Giltinan Shield and Winfield Cup Premiership during the season, which culminated in ...

grand final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Synonymous with a championship game in North Ameri ...

, for which he was selected on the interchange bench. In 1990, Edwards received the

Man of Steel Award The Steve Prescott Man of Steel Awards is an end-of-season awards dinner for the Super League rugby league competition. The event's name is taken from the main award presented, the Man of Steel award for the rugby league footballer of the year. I ...

after he played most of the

Final against Warrington with a broken cheekbone and eye socket, after receiving a high, off the ball tackle in the 10th minute. He refused to be substituted and played on to set up three of Wigan's tries. Despite his performance, the Man Of The Match award went to his half back partner Andy Gregory. He played in Wigan's

1991 World Club Challenge The 1991 World Club Challenge (marketed as the Foster's Lager, Foster's World Club Challenge due to sponsorship from the brewer) was contested by 1990–91 Rugby Football League season, 1990–91 RFL Championship winners, Wigan Warriors, Wigan and ...

victory over Sydney's

Penrith Panthers The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Greater Western Sydney suburb of Penrith, New South Wales, Penrith that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL). The team is based west of the cen ...

. Edwards finished the 1991–92 season as the league's leading try scorer with a total of 40. He matched Wigan's record for most tries in a single match (10) in the 78–0 rout of Swinton in the Lancashire Cup 2nd round in September 1992. It was a County Cup record and record for a non-winger in any game. In addition, he scored four tries in a game on four occasions and hat-tricks seven times. During the 1992–93 season, Edwards played at scrum half for defending RFL champions Wigan in the

1992 World Club Challenge The 1992 World Club Challenge match was contested by the 1991–92 Rugby Football League season champions Wigan Warriors, Wigan and the 1992 NSWRL season's premiers, the Brisbane Broncos. The match took place on Friday night, 30 October in Engla ...

against the visiting

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Red Hill, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos compete in the National Rugby League (NRL) and play their home games at ...

. He played in Wigan's 1994 World Club Challenge win over the

in Australia which attracted a World Club Challenge record attendance of 54,220 and also played in the first game of the 1996 cross-code challenge series against

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

. Edwards played in every round of Wigan's eight consecutive

wins. Altogether he made 452 appearances for Wigan, he played his last game for the club against St. Helens in the Challenge Cup defeat at Knowsley Road in 1997. Edwards left Wigan that year to move near his son James, signing for the

. He fell out with new coach Eric Hughes, who refused Edwards permission to miss the first training session of each week, in order for him to spend time with his son in London. The decision to allow Edwards to leave the club led to multiple complaints from Wigan fans. After just a season in London, Edwards moved to

but after only a few months returned to London, where he led the London Broncos to the 1999 Challenge Cup final at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

. He retired in 2000.

International

Edwards was the youngest ever player to play for Great Britain when he played against

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 ...

in 1985. His political views meant that on a Great Britain Lions tour, Edwards taped over the

British Coal The British Coal Corporation was a nationalised corporation responsible for the mining of coal in the United Kingdom from 1987 until it was effectively dissolved in 1997. The corporation was created by renaming its predecessor, the National Co ...

logo on his jersey in support of the

miners' strike The following is a list of miners' strikes. Miners' strikes are when miners conduct strike actions. See also *List of strikes *History of coal mining in the United States References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miners' strikes Miners' labor disputes, ...

. He was selected to go on the

1988 Great Britain Lions tour The 1988 Great Britain Lions tour was the Great Britain national rugby league team's 18th tour of Australasia and took place from May to July 1988. It started with a Test match (rugby league), Test match against Papua New Guinea national rugby le ...

, but injured his knee in the first game of the tour against

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

, and took no further part. He captained Great Britain for the first time in 1990, and was also selected to go on the 1992 Great Britain Lions tour. He was sent off for a high tackle on Bradley Clyde in the first Ashes test match of 1994 at

. He played for

36 times, starting 32 games with a further four from the substitutes bench, and scored 16 tries. Edwards was England's captain for the 1995 World Cup tournament, but ruled himself out of the final against Australia with an infected knee.

Coaching career

In 2001, Edwards joined London Wasps in

as a defence and backs coach, taking over as head coach in 2005 after

Warren Gatland Warren David Gatland (born 17 September 1963) is a New Zealand former rugby union player and the former head coach of the Wales national rugby union team, Wales national team. As a player, he was a Hooker (rugby union), hooker and was one of ...

returned to New Zealand. Wasps won the English Rugby Union Championship three times in succession, in 2003, 2004 and 2005, and the

Heineken Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Investec Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pre ...

in 2004. During his reign as Head Coach, London Wasps won the

Anglo-Welsh Cup The Anglo-Welsh Cup (), was a cross-border rugby union knock-out cup competition that featured the 12 Premiership Rugby clubs and the four Welsh regions. It was a created as a replacement for the RFU Knockout Cup, which featured only English clubs ...

in 2006, the

in 2007 and the English Rugby Union Championship in 2008. Edwards teamed up with Gatland again, after the latter was appointed head coach of : Edwards had been offered the job of coaching England's second-tier side,

England Saxons England A is England's men's second national rugby union team. The team has previously been known by a number of names, such as England B, Emerging England and, most recently, England Saxons. England A play a key role in the development of emerg ...

, but preferred the assistant coach position with Wales. Former player Matt Dawson stated that it was "a crime" that England lost him to Wales and described him as "the best coach in the world". Edwards left his position at London Wasps in November 2011. Since joining the Wales coaching team, Edwards has helped the nation to Grand Slam wins in 2008, 2012 and 2019 as well the Six Nations title in 2013. Wales also reached the last four of the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand. In Edwards' first Six Nations Wales, he conceded just two tries on their way to the title and in 2013–14 Wales went more than 400 minutes in the tournament without conceding a try. He was named Rugby World International Coach of the Year in 2008. He was defence coach for the

on their tour of South Africa in 2009. On 8 August 2018, it was announced that Edwards would return to rugby league to coach his former club Wigan Warriors in 2020, after completing his commitments with Wales. He described it as an opportunity too special to turn down. However, in March 2019, he stated that he had not signed a contract with Wigan, despite already posing for press photographs and conducting interviews at Wigan's ground about this role, instead signing up as France defence coach early 2020. His decision not to take the role at the Warriors was not popular with fans, and Edwards himself acknowledged it had affected his legacy at the club.

Personal life

Edwards had a long-term relationship with

M People M People (stylised as ''M''People) are an English dance music band that formed in 1990 and achieved success throughout most of the 1990s. The name M People is derived from the first letter of the first name of band member Mike Pickering, who f ...

singer

Heather Small Heather Marguerita Small (born 20 January 1965) is an English soul music, soul singer and lead vocalist of the band M People. Her subsequent debut solo studio album, ''Proud (Heather Small album), Proud'', was released in 2000. Her second and ...

, with whom he has a son, Labour Party councillor and

London Assembly The London Assembly is a 25-member elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a two-thirds supermajority, to amend the Mayor's annual budget and to reject t ...

member James Small-Edwards. Although no longer together, a key factor in his moving to the south was that he could be close to his son. When offered the job of coaching the Great Britain rugby league team, he turned it down because it would mean being in the north a lot of the time, away from his family. He is the patron of Looseheadz, a charity raising awareness for mental health.

Honours

Club

Wigan *

World Club Challenge The World Club Challenge is an annual rugby league competition between the winners of the Australian National Rugby League and the British Super League, for the de facto club world championship of the sport. Super League sides have won the c ...

(3):

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

(8): 1986–87, 1989–90, 1990–91, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96 *

(9):

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

1988 1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the Morris worm, 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United State ...

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

* Lancashire Cup (5): 1985–86, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89, 1992–93 * Premiership (5): 1986–87, 1991–92, 1993–94, 1994–95,

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

* League Cup (7): 1985–86, 1986–87, 1988–89, 1989–90, 1992–93, 1994–95, 1995–96

As head coach

;Wasps *

(1) * Premiership (1) *

European Challenge Cup The EPCR Challenge Cup is an annual rugby union competition organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the second-tier competition for clubs based in European leagues behind the European Rugby Champions Cup. From its inception ...

(1)

As assistant coach

;Wasps *

(1) * Premiership (3) ;Wales * Six Nations (4) ;France * Six Nations (2)

Individual

* Man of Steel: 1989–90

Orders and awards

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

OBE * Wigan Warriors Hall of Fame * Rugby League Hall of Fame