Why Rugby League’s best coaches are being poached by Rugby Union

In recent years, there has been a trend of League players and coaches crossing over into Union. Shaun Edwards, Kevin Sinfield and Mike Forshaw are all defence coaches for International sides, and Andy Farrell is the top dog in Ireland. Other League legends like Mike Ford and Sean Long have both had spells in Union coaching and now Lee Radford has made the transition as he has reportedly agreed to join Northampton Saints as their defence coach; but why are Leaguey’s gold dust for ‘the other code’?

The main thing is defence. The influence of league coaches has seen an incredibly sharp switch in defensive tactics, with an emphasis on defensive line speed and dominating the collision.

Jeremy Guscott highlighted this shift back in 2013, around the time the League style started to become more prevalent in Union. Speaking to the BBC, the former Bath, England and British and Irish Lion said: “The defensive lines are similar because union has made big strides in following league’s lead in this area. Union never really worked on defence as intensely as league did in the amateur era but that has all changed.”

Jonathan Davies, former cross-code international, representing Wales in both codes as well as Great Britain in League, echoed these comments back in 2013. “Union is different now to when I was playing,” he said. “Defence wasn’t as confrontational and aggressive as it is now. I went from an amateur sport in union to a professional one in league, so I found it tougher. Very rarely did you have to tackle as a fly-half in union in those days.”

In the decade that has passed from these comments, the defensive systems in Union has changed to become even more aggressive and ‘in your face’. This shift has come hand in hand with the growing influence of League coaches in the game.

Edwards was the key man in the shifting style of Union defence. His tenure as Wales defence coach helped shape the modern style of defence in Union, which draws in elements of League.

Line speed was the key to this style, and this transformed the Welsh team into a different animal. The Wigan legend is still leading the way for France, turning their fortunes around rapidly and making them a Grand Slam winning defence.

Edwards has previously commented on why League coaches do so well in Union. Speaking on BBC Five Live’s Rugby Union Weekly podcast back in February, Edwards said: “I think it’s just the emphasis on defence. We’ve always been brought up you have to practise your defence at least 25%, 30% of your training sessions.”

Andy Farrell has done similar things in his time in the sport. He has also been a crucial cog in the transformation of Union during his time as head coach of Ireland, as well as his time in the England defence coach.

Whilst Farrell cut his coaching teeth in defence, he has now overseen an attacking revolution on the Emerald Isle. Ireland are now playing a more expansive and free-flowing style of rugby which has seen them overtake France to become the best team in the world. This has probably been influenced by his League background, with the constant use of dummy runners and getting the ball out wide early.

Eddie Jones has trialled a more League style of attack too, in particular bringing in Martin Gleeson as his attack coach in 2022. The former St Helens, Warrington, Wigan and Salford player transformed the Wasps attack during his tenure in Coventry, and was brought in to do the same for England.

On his appointment at England, Gleeson said: “There’s been a definite trend of League coming over to Union in the last 15 years.” He added: “Everything about it, and it probably comes from a League background as well, the defence tells you what to do. The defence always tells the attack what to do. It’s the first thing, getting the guys knowing who they’re coming up against and looking and recognising what the defence is telling you. You don’t want to wait too long if there’s space in a certain area because it’ll be gone like that.” Whilst Gleeson didn’t last long in the England coaching set-up, his attacking ideas are still evident in their system today.

A growing trend is also the use of the pod system (referring to the three forwards at first receiver from the ruck) with a back in-behind. This has become the standard attacking shape in Union, and can easily be traced back to a League attack shape. These changes in attack have started coming in more recently, however in a similar vein to the defensive changes, they are embedding themselves into the fabric of the sport.

The success of these coaches in the shift in Union begs the question, how has League let them leave the sport, especially to ‘the other code’? Edwards was nearly tempted back, however his proposed appointment as Wigan Head Coach fell through, but can League make a conscious effort to draw them back into the sport?