Mike Ford (rugby)

For other persons named Michael Ford, see Michael Ford (disambiguation).

Mike A. Ford

Personal information
Born	18 November 1965 (1965-11-18) (age 46) Oldham, Great Britain
Playing information
Position	Scrum-half
Club
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
1987–1991	Oldham Roughyeds	115	30	1	8	130
1991–1994	Castleford	116	51	0	2	206
–11/04/1997	Wakefield Trinity
11/04/1997–1998	Castleford	47	6	0	6	30
1998–2001	Oldham Roughyeds
	Total	278	87	1	16	366

Mike A. Ford (born 18 November 1965) is an English former rugby league player and current rugby union coach. He is the England national rugby union team's defence coach.

Born in Oldham, Lancashire, Ford played rugby league as a scrum-half, playing for Wigan, Leigh, Wakefield Trinity, Castleford, South Queensland Crushers and Oldham. He won 10 caps for Great Britain.

He retired in 2001 as player-coach of Oldham RLFC after guiding them to the championship Grand Final. Whilst at Oldham, he started coaching rugby union at Dukinfield RUFC for 5 seasons winning a cup and two promotions. He left Oldham RLFC to take over as Defensive Co-ordinator of Ireland in January 2002 and stayed for 4 seasons winning a triple crown and guiding Ireland to 3rd in the world rankings. In September 2004 he started working as a defence and skills coach at Saracens F.C., before taking over as head coach in August 2005.

He served as a defence coach on the 2005 British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand, a series that the Lions lost 3-0 conceding a record 12 tries, and left his position with Ireland in September 2005. He became defence coach of England May 2006.

He was part of the coaching team that was severely criticised by senior players in the 2007 RWC.^[1]

The England playing record since Mike Ford became the defence coach is;^[2] Played 58, Won 27, Lost 30, Drawn 1, Against 3N, Played 22, Won 4, Lost 18 Against all comers an average of 22 points conceded per game, against 3N, 31 points per game

Least points conceded in 2009 Six Nations (70) and least tries conceded in the 2010 Six Nations (5)

Ford is a Tigers Hall Of Fame Inductee.^[3]

Two of his sons currently play rugby union, George Ford plays for Leicester Tigers and Joe Ford for Northampton Saints.

References

1. ^ "The Telegraph, 26 Oct 2007". Telegraph. 2007-10-26. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/international/england/2324177/Crisis-meetings-saved-Englands-World-Cup.html. Retrieved 2009-01-01. 
2. ^ "Scrum.com, 26 Oct 2007". Espn Scrum.com. 2011-03-08. http://www.espnscrum.com/statsguru/rugby/team/1.html?class=1;spanmin1=27+may+2006;spanval1=span;template=results;type=team;view=results. Retrieved 2011-01-01. 
3. ^ "Hall of Fame at castigers.com". castigers. 2008-12-31. https://castigers.powweb.com/cgi-bin/halloffame.cgi. Retrieved 2009-01-01. 

External links

• International Statistics at englandrl.co.uk
• Statistics at rugbyleagueproject.org
• Profile at thecastlefordtigers
• England RU profile

Persondata
Name	Ford, Mike
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1965-11-18
Place of birth	Oldham
Date of death
Place of death