England U20 Coach Mark Mapletoft on the Move to Harlequins

National Academy and England U20 Coach Mark Mapletoft has accepted the role of Assistant Coach at Harlequins

Mapletoft becomes a Quin 

National Academy and England U20 Coach Mark Mapletoft has accepted the role of Assistant Coach at Harlequins for season 2010/11 reporting directly to Director of Rugby Conor O' Shea. Mark will start his new role on July 1st.

Since being appointed as a National Academy Coach in January 2007 Mapletoft has spent the last three years working within the RFU Elite Rugby Department under Rob Andrew, Head of Elite Coach Development Kevin Bowring and Head of Elite Player Development Stuart Lancaster.

During his time in the Elite Rugby Department Mapletoft has spent two seasons as Assistant Coach to Nigel Redman where the highlights were an U20 Grand Slam in 2008 and reaching the IRB Junior World Championships Final in 2008. Since then Mark has led the England U20 programme as Head Coach finishing third in last season's U20 Six Nations and again reaching the final of the Junior World Championships. This season expectations are even higher and having secured second place in this year's U20 Six Nations he is fully committed to achieving the ultimate goal of winning the 2010 Junior World Championships, which take place in Argentina in June. 

Players he has worked with in the National Academy system and within the England U20 age group who have gone onto Senior England EPS international recognition include Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers), Danny Care (Harlequins), Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers), Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints) and Matthew Mullan (Worcester Warriors).

Mark Mapletoft said "It has been a very tough decision to make but after three very enjoyable years working as part of the Elite Department I've decided to move onto fresh challenges at Harlequins and working with Conor.   "I'd like to thank Rob Andrew, Stuart Lancaster, Kevin Bowring, Nigel Redman and everyone associated with the National Academy and the England U20 set ups for all the help and encouragement they have given me. I have benefitted hugely from the Elite Coach Development programme run by Rob, Kevin and Nigel Redman and I hope to take all the experiences I have gained at the RFU to the challenging job at Quins." 

Kevin Bowring said "Everyone at the RFU would like to wish Mark every success at Harlequins. He has done an excellent job with the England U20 group and year on year he has developed into an exciting prospect as an international coach within the U20 age group. He has developed his coaching knowledge, skills and competence and will relish the challenge of coaching in the Guinness Premiership and I'm sure he will have a great deal to offer Harlequins in the future.

"The Elite Coach Development programme continues to be innovative and challenging for everyone who takes part and Mark's progress can be mirrored by other coaches like Martin Haag (Bath Rugby), Jim Mallinder and Dorian West (Northampton Saints) who have spent time on our programmes and within the England representative team structure and successfully moved into the Guinness Premiership in recent seasons." 

Elite Rugby Director Rob Andrew said "Mark has made a superb contribution to the Elite Rugby Department, the National Academy and the England U20 squad over the last three years. One of our key objectives as a department has always been to develop and nurture young coaching talent and we feel we have achieved that with Mark and he leaves for Harlequins with our very best wishes for a successful club career as a coach." 

Harlequins Director of Rugby, Conor O' Shea said "I have played against and coached Mark whilst at London Irish and have also worked closely with him during my time at the RFU. I believe that Mark will compliment our coaching team perfectly and really impact positively on the potential we have within our backline. I look forward to welcoming him to Harlequins but in the meantime wish him luck at the Junior World Championship in June and hope that they can take that final step after he has helped the side reach the last two finals."