Dai Young is back in coaching, but it's not at the level you would expect

Dai Young has taken his first tentative steps back in rugby coaching following his exit from Wasps last February following a nine-year stint at the helm of the Gallagher Premiership club. The former Wales prop has recently been linked with the head coach vacancy at Gloucester following the hasty exits of Johan Ackermann and director of rugby David Humphreys. 

Gloucester hope to announce their new coach in early July but in the meantime, Young, who was previously linked with the Ospreys position taken up by Toby Booth, is making a low key comeback. Featuring in a short video circulated on CV Life Engage’s social media pages, Young stated that he is linking up with the Coventry Sports Foundation's summer programme.

“I'm going to be running some of the rugby coaching academy sessions here at the Alan Higgs. I'm really looking forward to seeing you. Look for the details coming up very soon.”

It was March, shortly before rugby in the UK was suspended due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, that Young revealed what he had been up to after a run of poor results over the winter ended his time at Wasps. 

After a break in Wales visiting his parents and seeing his sons Lewis and Owain play grassroots rugby in the Welsh Premiership, he revealed he would look at opportunities about getting back into coaching whenever rugby resumed following its current virus-enforced break. 

“I’m getting back in the gym, getting myself fitter and losing a bit of weight. Spending a bit of time on me,” he said in an interview with the Coventry Telegraph. “The director of rugby job is an all-consuming job, you can forget to look after yourself. I want to rest up as well and take a break from it and recharge my batteries.

“Although it’s only been three weeks, it has been completely different. I’m enjoying the break and not being involved in rugby on a day-to-day basis, how long that will last, who knows? The next six weeks, I will sit down and think about what I want moving forward.

“In the last two seasons as director of rugby I have not done as much coaching as I would normally do, I haven’t enjoyed that, I don’t think that’s the best use of my time and experience. The obvious way forward would be a director of rugby role, having spent 16 years as director of rugby at both Cardiff and Wasps.

“The last two years at Wasps I didn’t have a direct hands-on coaching responsibility but an overseeing role. I’d much rather be a director of rugby, head coach. Spending more hands-on coaching time on the pitch. I’m not averse to just being a coach as well. I have got no egotistical thing about wanting to be in charge. I see my next job as being really important, I want to make sure it’s something I enjoy.”