Dean Richards’s return to rugby after a three-year ban for cheating was confirmed yesterday when Newcastle Falcons announced that the former England No 8 will join as director of rugby from the start of next season.
He will replace Gary Gold, the former South Africa assistant coach, after the ban for his role in the “bloodgate” scandal expires on August 19.
Richards, 48, had one of the most glittering coaching CVs, winning four Premiership titles and two Heineken Cups in charge of Leicester before taking Harlequins from the Championship into Europe, but his career came to a temporary halt as a result of a misjudgment on April 12, 2009.
In a Heineken Cup quarter-final against Leinster, Richards told Tom Williams, the wing, to use a fake blood capsule to feign an injury so that Nick Evans, the fly half who had been replaced, could return and attempt a late dropped goal.
Richards, who played 54 times for England and the Lions, told The Journal, a Newcastle daily newspaper, that the first year of his ban had been the hardest but it had given a welcome chance to spend time with his family. “Because the job is basically 24/7, you tend to neglect your family growing up,” he said. “It is only in the past three years that I have spent the amount of time I have wanted to with my wife and kids, and just watching the children playing rugby has been fantastic.”
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Near the end of his ban, Richards said that he found it more frustrating to watch rugby. “I watch the games every week and, like any coach, I am thinking ‘why are they doing that?’ ” he said. “I want to get back in. I am raring to go and I just can’t wait.”
He chose Newcastle over approaches from other clubs because of the ambition of Semore Kurdi, the owner, although with Newcastle eight points adrift at the foot of the Aviva Premiership, he may have to spend his first season, as he did with Harlequins, getting them promoted.
“On the night they [Harlequins] went down, their chief executive Mark Evans rang me up and asked if I was still interested,” Richards said. “I said of course I was — I had signed a contract and always intended to honour that — and it is the same at Newcastle.”
“A few of the players were upset about it, but two or three weeks into the season they realised it was a great opportunity to try things, blood some youngsters and come back stronger.”
“The year down there was used as preparation for a Premiership season, and when we came up we were comfortably mid-table and built from there.”