 Lynn Howells during a press conference in September 2015 shortly before departing for the 2015 Rugby World Cup | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Lynn Howells (1950-05-29)29 May 1950 (age 75) Maerdy, Wales | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Occupation | Rugby union coach | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Lynn Howells (born 29 May 1950) is aWelshrugby union coach, who until March 2018 was the head coach of theRomanian national team, having been the manager of the national side for 10 months prior to his appointment. Howells, born inMaerdy inRhondda Valleys, playedflanker at his nearest clubTylorstown RFC, before playing forPenygraig RFC. There he was noticed byPontypridd RFC, and represented one of the top clubs in Wales in 1971.
Having played for the club in 1971, Howells joinedPontypridd in 1991 as an assistant coach toDennis John. Howells and John made a formidable coaching duo, bringing a number of silverware to the club for the first time since the late '70s. They guided Ponty to Cup and League Championship successes in 1996 and 1997, before Howells parted way with the club in 1998 to joinCardiff. At the same time,Kevin Bowring left his role as head coach of theWelsh national team, prompting the union to appoint Dennis John as an interim head coach for their1998 tour of Southern Africa.[1] John brought Howells with him for the tour as an assistant, where they only managed to secure a single win out of the 6-match tour; a 49–11 victory overZimbabwe. New ZealanderGraham Henry was appointed as Wales' new head coach, and Howells was kept on by Henry as his assistant/forwards coach.[2]
In April 1999, it was announced that Lynn Howells would leave his post at Pontypridd to take on the head coaching role atCardiff.[3] The start of the season saw the club lose 13 first choice players due to the1999 Rugby World Cup, where Howells was also taking part in as assistant coach for Wales, the host country. Henry and Howells lead Wales to top of the Pool with victories overArgentina andJapan, but were defeated bySamoa. Wales were knocked out by the eventual ChampionsAustralia in the quarter-finals, losing 24–9. Howells played a massive part in the preparations for the World Cup, creating a strong forward pack that beatSouth Africa for the first ever time, 29–19.
Howells returned to Cardiff post World Cup and despite the sides poor start and failing to win in the first rounds of the1999–2000 Heineken Cup, they progressed to the quarter-finals, where they were beaten byLlanelli 22–3. He guided the team to the Welsh/Scottish League title with three games remaining in season, while the season was also notable for a club record victory of 116–0 overDuvnant during the League.[4] The club had gone unbeaten at home for almost the whole season, before losing 41–40 toSwansea in their very last game of the season, which was Cardiff's first defeat at theArms Park for over two years, since 13 December 1997, again against Swansea. The following season saw Howells leave the side following an unsuccessful season. Howell's led the side to five Welsh/Scottish League matches in the first five rounds and led the side to home and away victories over English Premiership leadersSaracens in the2000–01 Heineken Cup. However at the start of 2001, Cardiff lost all of their crucial matches, including a Heineken Cup quarter-final loss toGloucester 21–15. A loss at home toBridgend and laterEbbw Vale in the League, saw Cardiff fail to retain their title.
With Henry coaching theBritish & Irish Lions on theirtour of Australia, Howells became caretaker coach of the national side for their2001 test series againstJapan. Wales won the test series 2–0, with a 64–10 win in the first test and a 53–30 win in the second. After the tour, Howells left the national set up, becoming head coach of Pontypridd. With Howells at the reign between 2001 and 2003, Ponty made it all the way to the final of the2001–02 European Challenge Cup in just his first season in charge. They were beaten bySale Sharks 25–22 in the final, but later went onto secure theWelsh Cup title ahead of Llanelli.
In 2003, theWelsh Rugby Union brought in regional rugby (Welsh Regional Rugby) which saw Pontypridd merge with Bridgend, forming theCeltic Warriors. Howell's was named Director of Rugby at the new side, where he guided the side to 4th in the2003–04 Celtic League. In the2003–04 Heineken Cup, they failed to get out of their group with losses toPerpignan home and away, though the Warriors did defeat Pool leaders and eventual champions,London Wasps, both home and away. On 1 June 2004, the club was disbanded by the union.[5]
Between 2004 and 2006, Howells coach inItaly, becoming Director of Rugby atLeonessa. They had recently earned promotion to the top Italian division, theSuper 10, but failed to keep their place in the league during the 2004–05 season.
In September 2006 Howells was appointed Head Coach ofEdinburgh, and after leading the side to 8th in the2006–07 Celtic League and bottom of their pool in the2006–07 Heineken Cup, he was sacked in August 2007 after a management restructuring.[6] He took up the head coach position atDoncaster Knights, leading them to 4th in the2007–08 National Division One in his first season in charge. In the 4 years Howells was at the club, Doncaster failed to get much above the middle part of the table, and left the club at the end of the2010–11 RFU Championship.
On 14 January 2012 he was announced as the new manager of theRomanian national team.
In November 2012, he became the head coach ofBucurești Wolves, a role that comes with being head coach of the Romanian national team. He led the side to a 25–22 victory over French sideAgen in the2012–13 European Challenge Cup. During the2013–14 European Challenge Cup, the Wolves picked up two victories, both coming home and away to Italian sideCalvisano, although they did lose narrowly toBrive andNewcastle Falcons. At the2014–15 European Rugby Challenge Cup, the side lost all six of their games for the first ever time, while in the2015–16 European Rugby Challenge Cup they failed to qualify altogether, forcing the disbandment of the side.[7]
After an unsuccessful2012 end-of-year rugby union internationals, the then head coach of RomaniaHaralambie Dumitras resigned, with Howells taking over. His first match came in the first year of the2012–14 European Nations Cup First Division, a narrow 19–13 win overPortugal, before securing wins againstRussia, 29–14,Spain, 25–15 andBelgium, 32–14. On 16 March 13, they drew withGeorgia, 9–all, the sides' first ever draw; however, Georgia claimed the title on point difference, +74 to +49. In June 2013, Romania clinched their secondIRB Nations Cup with victories over Russia,Argentina XV andItaly A. During the2013 end-of-year rugby union internationals, Howells led Romania to a 19–18 win overTonga, a first ever meeting between the two nations, and a 21–20 win overCanada. A clean sweep was blocked byFiji on 23 November, when the Flying Fijians won, 26–7.
In the second year of the 2012–14 European Nations Cup First Division, Howells led Romania to a 24–0 victory over Portugal, followed by a 34–3 win over Russia, a 32–6 win over Spain and a 29–10 win over Belgium. Heading into the final match against Georgia, Romania were leading the table with 38 points; however, a 22–9 loss to the Lelos saw the Georgians take their third consecutiveEuropean Nations Cup title. Romania finished second to qualify as Europe 2 in the2015 Rugby World Cup.[8] During the2014 IRB Nations Cup, Romania finished second behindEmerging Ireland, who were the only side to beat Howells' men, 31–10. The2014 end-of-year rugby union internationals saw Romania claim a single victory, coming in the final week of their campaign, an 18–9 win over Canada. Their losses came against theUnited States, 27–17, andJapan, 18–13.
At the start of the2014–16 European Nations Cup First Division, Romania picked up a 37–10 win over Portugal and a 29–8 win over Spain. However, on 28 February 2015, Romania lost to Russia, 16–13, for the first time since 2009, before defeating newly promoted sideGermany, 17–12. On 21 March 2015, Romania failed to beat Georgia for the seventh consecutive time, losing, 15–6. A promising performance in the2015 World Rugby Nations Cup gave the side a glimmer of hope heading into the World Cup later in the year, with a 35–9 win over Spain, a 43–3 win overNamibia and finally a convincing 23–0 win over Argentina XV. Ahead of the World Cup, Romania failed to win a singlewarm-up match, drawing withYorkshire Carnegie 10–all, losing to Edinburgh 31–16 and in their only test match, losing to Tonga 21–16. During the World Cup, Romania performed well againstFrance, in what was Romania's first Tier 1 opponent sinceEngland during the2011 Rugby World Cup almost exactly 4 years before the French game. France downed Romania, 38–11, before Romania faced another Tier 1 side,Ireland, losing, 44–10. They earned their first World Cup win since the2007 tournament defeating Canada 17–15, despite being 8–0 down at half time; a 78th-minute penalty byFlorin Vlaicu sealed the win. Despite scoring 3 tries, Romania were defeated byItaly 32–22 in their final match of the tournament, seeing them finish fourth in their group.
In the second leg of matches of the 2014–16 European Nations Cup First Division, Romania secured wins over Russia, Spain, Germany and Portugal, before losing to Georgia, 38–9, in their final match; a record winning margin for the Lelos. The2016 World Rugby Nations Cup saw Romania claim their fourth title, after beating Argentina XV, 20–8, in the final. In the2016 end-of-year rugby union internationals Romania had a vert successful campaign winning all three tests; 23–10 against the United States, 21–16 win over Canada and ended with a 36–10 victory over Uruguay.
During the2017 Rugby Europe Championship, Romania started with a first ever loss to Germany since 1938, losing 41–38. However, Romania went onto win all of their remaining matches; Spain 13–3, Russia 30–10, Belgium 33–17 and a first ever win over Georgia since 2010, 8–7. This was the first ever time Howells had led Romania to a victory over Georgia and to win theAntim Cup. Their victory also meant they won the Championship for the first ever time since 2010. In June 2017, Howells led Romania on their first June tour sinceJune 2006, where they played two away games followed by a historic home game. Their tour started with a first visit to Japan since 2005, where they lost 33–21. The following week saw Canada host Romania for the first time, where Romania continued their winning streak, winning 25–9, a record winning margin for Romania against Canada. On 24 June, Romania became the first Tier 2 nation to play againstBrazil, as Brazil had never played a test match against a team in a higher tier than them outside any tournament or competition. The test match was unsurprisingly won by Romania, winning 56–5 in a game that saw only forwards score tries, 8 in total. Romania maintained their form into the2017 End-of-year tests, defeatingSamoa 17–13 and narrowly losing to Tonga 25–20.
2018 saw Howells lead Romania into the final stages of the2019 European Rugby World Cup qualifiers. Howells began the2018 Rugby Europe Championship with an 85–6 victory over Germany, however was defeated by Spain the following week, 22–10, for the first time since Howells first took over in 2012. Romania returned to winning ways in rounds three and four, defeating Russia 25–15 and Belgium 62–12. Despite this, following the conclusion of the Belgium game on 10 March, Howells and his staff announced their resignation from the team.[9] His last match in charge saw Georgia defeat his side 25–16 and initially finish second in the 2018 Rugby Europe Championship and qualify for the2019 Rugby World Cup.
Howells leaves Romania with a 70% win rate, winning 49 out of 70 games.
It was alleged that throughout the qualification process, Romania had fielded ineligible players, and thatWorld Rugby andRugby Europe would investigate the allegations. A neutral panel found that Romania were guilty of breaching Regulation 8 and the panel determined that Romania would be deducted 5 points for each game they had fielded an ineligible player, regardless of if more than one ineligible player had been fielded. The investigation found that Romania had fielded ineligible players 6 times and therefore were deducted 30 points from the table, and effectively disqualifying them from the world cup – Romania now sat third across the two-year aggregate table and bottom of the 2018 Championship.[10][11]
On 29 May 2018, Romania appealed the decision.[12] On 6 June, the appeal failed and the decision was upheld meaning Russia was confirmed as Europe 1 and qualified for the World Cup, whilst Germany advanced to round 6.[13] This meant Russia qualified for the World Cup ahead of Romania.
Pontypridd(as assistant coach)
Pontypridd(as head coach)
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)| Sporting positions | ||
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| Preceded by | Romania national rugby union coach 2012–2018 | Succeeded by |
