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On August 26, Urayasu D-Rocks, who compete in Japan Rugby League One NTT League One Division 1 announced that former England international Graham Rowntree will become their head coach and not Warren Gatland as had been speculated by some media.
A day before the announcement, Urayasu D-Rocks had officially announced that last season's Head Coach, Scottish international Greig Laidlaw, would step down and become the executive club ambassador.
Rowntree is the latest new Head Coach to head to Japan, which already features a star-studded lineup of international coaches. This coming season, Leon MacDonald has also joined the Yokohama Canon Eagles in the JRLO top-flight.
Urayasu D-Rocks explained that Rountree's appointment as new head coach is "part of a strategic reorganisation aimed at further growth of the club and realising our mid- to long-term vision."
They added, “Rowntree will be responsible for strengthening the club’s competitive capabilities while further deepening Urayasu D-Rocks’ philosophy of being a ‘development-oriented club’.
Rowntree has an extensive track record in European rugby and is particularly highly regarded for his expertise in player development and team building.”
For the past two seasons, the club were under Johan Ackerman (now at the Emirates Lions), who secured their promotion to Division 1 and he was named Japan’s Division Two coach and Laidlaw who was in his first year as a Head Coach after playing for the club, but the team struggled in Japan’s top division but survived the play-offs to remain in Division 1. They won only three of their 18 regular-season matches.
Graham Rowntree was capped 54 times by England as a loosehead prop during his playing days, and competed in the 1999 World Cup as well as the British & Irish Lions tours in 1997 and 2005.
In a coaching capacity, he had been the forwards coach for the England national team and the B&I Lions.
He was let go by Eddie Jones when the current Brave Blossoms Head Coach was in charge of the English team as part of a broader overhaul of Stuart Lancaster's coaching staff following England's disappointing Rugby World Cup 2015 campaign. He had served as the forwards coach from 2007 to 2015.
Hopefully, that is water under the bridge, as they say, as Jones and the JRLO coaches work collectively, or so the JRFU says, to ensure there is cohesion for the Brave Blossoms and their approach to the international game.
Rowntree was Warren Gatland‘s assistant with the Lions as a scrum and forwards coach during their tours to South Africa, Australia and New Zealand in 2009, 2013 and 2017 respectively.
It was never officially confirmed by the club or Gatland that the former Wales boss would be heading to Japan, rather media speculation, but a number of sources told us they thought he would be in charge so what went wrong is unknown. In hindsight, it is tough to know if Gatland’s approach and style would have been a good fit in Japan.
In 2019, Rowntree was forwards coach for Munster in Ireland as they competed in the United Rugby Championship (URC), and was head coach in 2022. He won the URC that season in 2023 - their first title in 12 years and was named URC Coach of the Year but he left them in October 2024 by mutual consent even though his contract was until the Summer of 2026.
He said of the appointment, “I am honoured to have the opportunity to lead such an ambitious and proud club. The Japanese league is becoming more and more competitive every year. I look forward to creating an environment that allows us to change and adapt so that we can become even more competitive. This organisational change is an important step towards realising our medium- to long-term goal of becoming a club that will compete for the championship in 2028.
In his role, he will have to help the club steer through the new JRLO player eligibility rule changes from the 2026-27 season, which is intended to promote more local Japanese talent.
The Japan Rugby League One 2025-2026 season gets underway on 13 December for the 5th edition of Japan’s premier rugby union league, but beforehand, all of the clubs will be competing in the newly organised development tournament called Japan Rugby League One Rising, which gets underway in September 2025. It will be a good opportunity for the new Head Coach to assess the younger development talent at his disposal.