Edwards set for Wigan coaching role

Wales rugby union defense coach Shaun Edwards will make an emotional return to Wigan Warriors as head coach of the Super League giants after next year’s World Cup.

Edwards signed a three-year contract and will replace interim coach Adrian Lam from the 2020 season.

Lam is stepping in for a season to replace present head coach Shaun Wane, who is taking up a coaching role with Scotland’s rugby union team.

Edwards, an outstanding Great Britain scrum-half/standoff who won three World Club Challenges, eight national titles and nine Challenge Cups in his time at Wigan, has been out of rugby league since he retired as a player in 2000.

The 51-year-old was only willing to swap codes again because of his ties to Wigan, and he admitted going back to work for the club he has supported since childhood will be a sweet moment.

“I only left Wigan because of my son. I wanted to be part of his life. He’s 21 now and he’s my best mate and I’ve come home,” Edwards said.

“Wigan was a huge part of my life for 31 years because I was a supporter before I became a player. It’s absolutely through my bones.”

In rugby union, Edwards guided Wasps to European Cup glory in 2007 after filling in the vacuum as head coach left by Warren Gatland when he returned to New Zealand in 2005. He left the club to reunite with Gatland in the Welsh coaching team in 2011.

“He [Edwards] is a legendary figure in both codes of rugby as a supremely gifted player and as a highly successful coach,” said Wigan Chairman Ian Lenagan.