 Rowntree in 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Graham Christopher Rowntree (1971-04-18)18 April 1971 (age 54) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 110 kg (17 st; 240 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| School | John Cleveland College | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Graham Christopher Rowntree (born 18 April 1971)[1] is anEnglishrugby union former player and former head coach of Irish clubMunster. He playedloosehead prop forLeicester Tigers andEngland. He was capped 54 times for England, despite having to compete for his position with one of the world's most capped forwards,Jason Leonard. Rowntree was born inStockton-on-Tees. He was educated atJohn Cleveland College,Hinckley,Leicestershire, which has also produced other rugby union players.
In 1988 he joinedLeicester Tigers fromNuneaton and made his first-team debut against Oxford University in 1990. He was given the nickname Fruit Pastille Man early in his career, owing to sharing a surname with the confectionery brand that manufactures the well known sweet. For much of that time he was in harness with the famous ‘ABC club’ alongsideRichard Cockerill andDarren Garforth. At Leicester Rowntree enjoyed great domestic success, and started both the2001[2] and2002[3] Heineken Cup finals.
In 1993 he made his England A,Barbarians and Midlands debuts, and on 18 March 1995 he gained his first full England cap againstScotland in the1995 Five Nations Championship as a temporary replacement forJason Leonard. He subsequently played in the1995 Rugby World Cup. He also made the1997 British Lions tour to South Africa, playing 6 games and the1999 Rugby World Cup.
After the 1999 World Cup Graham was not capped for almost 2 years until a series of fine performances for his club forced him back into international contention. He was prominent throughout the pre-2003 Rugby World Cup years. He was selected for the England squad to tour Canada and the US in2001, participated in all that season's Autumn internationals — being named as man of the match in England's 21–15 Cook Cup victory over Australia — and started in each of the2002 Six Nations games. He started in England's 15–13 win over New Zealand in Wellington in2003 and put in a particularly memorable performance against theAll Blacks when England's pack was reduced to just 6 men. Despite playing in the 2003 pre-World Cup trial match in France, Rowntree was omitted fromClive Woodward's squad, which won the tournament.Clive Woodward admitted that leaving Rowntree behind was one of the hardest decisions he had to make in his time as England head coach.
Rowntree returned to the England side in the2004 Six Nations and was the first-choice loosehead prop for the2004 Autumn Internationals.
Rowntree retired from rugby in 2007 after 17 years playing the game, and he joined the Tigers coaching team where he made a rapid rise up the coaching ranks, becoming the forwards/scrum coach for the English national team ahead of the2008 Six Nations Championship. He toured South Africa with theBritish & Irish Lions in2009, acting as scrum coach, before being named forwards coach for the winning test series against Australia in2013 and scrum coach for the drawn series with New Zealand in2017.
Following the resignation of head coachStuart Lancaster on 11 November 2015, newly appointed head coachEddie Jones sacked the whole coaching team, with Rowntree leaving his post with England after eight years in December 2015. At the end of the2015–16 English Premiership season, it was announced thatHarlequins had appointed Rowntree as their new forwards coach.[4] Rowntree joined theGeorgian national team in 2018, but left after the2019 Rugby World Cup to join Irish provinceMunster as their new forwards coach.[5][6]
Rowntree signed a two-year contract extension with Munster in January 2022,[7] and, in April 2022, the province confirmed that Rowntree would replaceJohann van Graan as head coach from the 2022–23 season.[8] Munster won silverware in Rowntree's first season as head coach, ending a twelve year trophy drought when they defeated South African side theStormers 19–14 away from home in thefinal of the2022–23 United Rugby Championship on 27 May 2023.[9] Munster confirmed a two-year contract extension with Rowntree in September 2023.[10]
On 29 October 2024, Munster announced the departure of Rowntree by mutual agreement after four losses in six games in the2024-25 United Rugby Championship.[11]