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| Full name | Shaun Edwards | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1966-10-17)17 October 1966 (age 59) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Height | 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 11 st 10 lb (74 kg) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Position | Fullback, Stand-off, Scrum-half | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Shaun Edwards,OBE (born 17 October 1966) is an Englishrugby union coach and formerrugby league footballer, who is the defence coach for theFrance national team. Ascrum-half orstand-off, 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.[5]
Edwards captained England in both rugby league and rugby union at schoolboy level. He played forWigan in thefirst division andSuper League between 1983 and 1997, and also had spells withBalmain Tigers,London Broncos (twice) andBradford Bulls. Playing for Wigan, Edwards won a record eight championships, and a record nineChallenge Cups. In total he played in eleven Challenge Cup finals, also a record.[6] He was votedMan of Steel in 1990 and is an inductee of theWigan Hall of Fame.
Edwards played 36 times forGreat Britain, as well as forEngland in 1995 and 1996 andIreland in 1998. In all, he appeared in threeRugby League World Cups.[1]
After retiring from playing he joinedLondon 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 theBritish & Irish Lions on theirtour of South Africa in 2009. He joined France in 2020 and won the Grand Slam in 2022 and the Six Nations title in 2025.
Edwards was born inWigan,Lancashire, England. His father,Jackie Edwards, played forWarrington from 1955 to 1964, as astand-off orscrum-half, until a severe spinal injury ended his career prematurely at age 24.[7] His uncleBobby Edwards played one match for Warrington in thehalves againstNew Zealand atWilderspool Stadium on Saturday 23 September 1961.
Edwards was England schoolboy captain at bothrugby league andrugby union, 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.[8] His son James was an academy player at Wasps and played at scrum-half. Edwards is aRoman Catholic, 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.
Edwards signed for Wigan in a blaze of media coverage on his seventeenth birthday; for a fee of £35,000,[9] the largest in history for a schoolboy player. He made his début for the club atscrum-half in their 30–13 home victory overYork on 6 November 1983, 20 days after signing for Wigan. Later in the season Wigan reached the final of the1984 Challenge Cup, and Edwards played at fullback in their loss to Widnes.
In the1984–85 season, Wigan reached the1985 Challenge Cup Final and Edwards played atfullback, scoring atry in his side's victory.
Edwards played in Wigan's1987 World Club Challenge victory over Sydney'sManly-Warringah Sea Eagles. Edwards played for Sydney club theBalmain Tigers when they reached the1989 NSWRL season'sgrand final, for which he was selected on the interchange bench.
In 1990, Edwards received theMan of Steel Award after he played most of theChallenge Cup 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's1991 World Club Challenge victory over Sydney'sPenrith Panthers.
Edwards finished the1991–92 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 theLancashire Cup 2nd round in September 1992.[10] It was aCounty 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 the1992–93 season, Edwards played at scrum half for defending RFL champions Wigan in the1992 World Club Challenge against the visitingBrisbane Broncos. He played in Wigan's1994 World Club Challenge win over theBrisbane Broncos in Australia which attracted a World Club Challenge record attendance of 54,220 and also played in the first game of the 1996cross-code challenge series againstBath.
Edwards played in every round of Wigan's eight consecutiveChallenge Cup wins. Altogether he made 452 appearances for Wigan, he played his last game for the club againstSt. Helens in the Challenge Cup defeat at Knowsley Road in 1997. Edwards left Wigan that year to move near his son James, signing for theLondon Broncos. He fell out with new coachEric 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 toBradford Bulls but after only a few months returned to London, where he led the London Broncos to the 1999 Challenge Cup final atWembley.[11] He retired in 2000.
Edwards was the youngest ever player to play for Great Britain when he played againstFrance in 1985. His political views meant that on a Great Britain Lions tour, Edwards taped over theBritish Coal logo on his jersey in support of theminers' strike. He was selected to go on the1988 Great Britain Lions tour, but injured his knee in the first game of the tour againstPapua New Guinea, and took no further part.[12] He captained Great Britain for the first time in 1990,[13] and was also selected to go on the1992 Great Britain Lions tour.
He was sent off for a high tackle onBradley Clyde in the firstAshes test match of 1994 atWembley.[14] He played forGreat Britain 36 times, starting 32 games with a further four from the substitutes bench, and scored 16 tries.
Edwards was England's captain for the1995 World Cup tournament, but ruled himself out of the final against Australia with an infected knee.[15]
In 2001, Edwards joinedLondon Wasps inrugby union as a defence and backs coach, taking over as head coach in 2005 afterWarren Gatland returned to New Zealand. Wasps won theEnglish Rugby Union Championship three times in succession, in 2003, 2004 and 2005, and theHeineken Cup in 2004. During his reign as Head Coach,London Wasps won theAnglo-Welsh Cup in 2006, theHeineken Cup in 2007 and theEnglish Rugby Union Championship in 2008.
Edwards teamed up with Gatland again, after the latter was appointed head coach ofWales: Edwards had been offered the job of coaching England's second-tier side,England Saxons,[16] but preferred the assistant coach position with Wales. FormerEngland playerMatt Dawson stated that it was "a crime" that England lost him to Wales and described him as "the best coach in the world".[17] Edwards left his position at London Wasps in November 2011.[18]
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.[citation needed]
He was defence coach for theBritish & Irish Lions on theirtour 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.[19] 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.
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Edwards had a long-term relationship withM People singerHeather Small, with whom he has a son,Labour Party councillor andLondon Assembly memberJames Small-Edwards.[20] 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 theGreat 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.[citation needed]
He is the patron of Looseheadz, a charity raising awareness for mental health.[21]
Wigan
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