I like the appointment of Skivington, 37, because he is a young, aspiring English coach and it is an unbelievable opportunity for him. While Skivington went for the tried and tested option of Alex King to marshal his attack, he went left-field for his defence co-ordinator in Waldouck – both former Wasps teammates.
Waldouck was an England Saxons centre with big raps when he was young until a ruptured Achilles stymied his progress. He was part of the successful Wasps side coming off the bench as a 20-year-old when they won the Heineken Cup in 2007 and started in the 2008 Premiership final when they beat Leicester.
I’m not sure if he’s been a journeyman since that injury in 2011, but we’ve not heard of him much through stints at Northampton, London Irish and over in America, before joining Newcastle where he was a player-coach last season.
I think anyone who has played rugby for long enough could be a coach of some sort, whether it be overall or attack, defence, skills or a positional coach. Waldouck was a strong inside centre and played alongside some great players in his time including one of the best defensive centres in Wasps’ Fraser Waters.
Waldouck was given the opportunity by Dean Richards to take charge of the Falcons’ defence in the Championship last season and while it will be a big step up to take charge of a Premiership defence, having King alongside will be a huge benefit – and it’s great for the club that Trevor Woodman is still part of the coaching set-up.
I’ve known Kingy for a long time. He was breaking into England contention in the autumn of 1998 and made his first appearance at Twickenham as a replacement against South Africa when we won 13-7 to stop them getting the world record for consecutive wins.
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