Blake back after ban
Foundation New Zealand Warriors rugby league back Phil Blake is returning to coach an English rugby union club he quit three years ago ahead of a betting rules breach ban.
Blake, 55, is set to return to the Leicester Tigers as defence coach after quitting the club in
2015 just before being slapped with a sixmonth ban by England’s Rugby Football Union.
He was fined £669 and ordered to pay £500 costs and was banned from rugby-related activity until November 24, 2015, for placing eight bets on Leicester games.
Blake was the first person banned by England’s Rugby Football Union for a betting breach.
He resigned from the Tigers coaching team before the ban was confirmed, but there clearly is no hard feelings from Leicester. At the time of his suspension, in April, 2015, the Midlands club said Blake had been ‘‘a popular and valued member of the coaching team and we hope he is fully able to return to the game in a suitable capacity at the end of the period laid down by the disciplinary hearing’’. Leicester’s current head coach Geordan Murphy worked with Blake on the Tigers’ back room staff and is welcoming his former colleague back into the fold.
‘‘We’ve been looking for a defence coach. Now Phil’s come around and we’re just sorting out the final nuts and bolts of that,’’ Murphy said.
‘‘It’s nice to have him in the country and, when we’re ready to announce it, we will.’’
Blake was spotted in the crowd at Leicester’s Welford Road ground at the weekend, wearing club match day gear, as the Tigers celebrated a 34-16 win over Gloucester.