Fowkes leaves Ealing for Leicester Tigers

Former Wasps scrum coach Neil Fowkes is heading back to the Gallagher Premiership after being appointed as a transition coach (forwards) at Leicester Tigers.

Fowkes leaves Ealing Trailfinders six months after he joined the Championship club as forwards coach under DoR Ben Ward.

Ealing recruited Fowkes in January after Jonathan Thomas left his consultancy position to take up a job with Wales but the Championship high flyers will now be on the lookout for another replacement.

With coaching jobs at a decent level few and far between in English rugby, there should be no shortage of takers for the role and ex-hooker Ross McMillan, formerly of London Irish, has been mentioned as a leading candidate.

Meanwhile, Fowkes’ appointment at Leicester completes their coaching set-up for the 2023/24 season.

Leicester have almost had to build an entirely new backroom team after England raided them for Steve Borthwick, Richard Wigglesworth, Kevin Sinfield, Tom Harrison and Aled Walters.

Dan McKellar has arrived as the Tigers’ new head coach and lead coach on the lineout and forwards.

Alan Dickens (attack and backs), Dan Palmer (scrum) and Ollie Richardson (Head of Physical Performance) are three more new additions to a team that includes Brett Deacon (breakdown and contact), Matt Everard (defence) and Matt Smith (first team skills and lead academy coach).

Everard and Smith were both team-mates of Fowkes during his playing days at Nottingham, while he also worked alongside Everard at Wasps before being made redundant in October last year.

Before that, Fowkes cut his coaching teeth at Nottingham, first as an assistant then as head coach, after hanging up his boots in 2011 after over 200 games for the Green & Whites at prop.