When rugby union’s wall of amateurism began to crumble in the late 1980s and early 90s, Jack Rowell’s Bath club were already professional in all but name. Bath dominated English club rugby and it was inevitable that Rowell, who has died at the age of 87, would go on to coach England.
Rowell’s time as national coach was a turbulent one and he was a divisive figure. Complex, acerbic and sensitive, he was successful on the national stage, leading England to a grand slam and 21 victories in 29 games. But he came into conflict with his high-profile captain, Will Carling, treated the media with ill-disguised contempt, and his time with England did not end happily in 1997.
Rowell, a successful businessman outside the world of rugby, presented himself as an anti-establishment figure. A bluff, imposing figure at 6ft 7in, he became something of a poacher-turned-gamekeeper when he took the national coaching job after the term of Geoff Cooke.
At Bath he would often tell some of his star players: “That may be good enough for England, young man, but not for Bath.” That cutting, if tongue-in-cheek, approach to man-management worked in the club environment at Bath, where he was seen as a godfather figure. But it cut little ice with senior England players such as Carling and Rob Andrew.
What cannot be disputed, though, is Rowell’s success with Bath, who became an unstoppable force. The club won 13 trophies between 1978 and 1994, and they did so playing a dazzling style of rugby never before witnessed in the English club game. Rowell was a visionary coach who admired the panache of Pierre Villepreux’s Toulouse club, and he wanted Bath to win by playing entertaining, 15-man rugby. His strength was team-building and spotting the right players to allow him to complete his vision.
Born in Hartlepool, he was the son of Monica (nee Day) and Edwin, a coal-shipping supervisor. He was educated at West Hartlepool grammar school and studied philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) at St Edmund Hall, Oxford.
In his first weeks at university Rowell injured his neck playing rugby and was told his playing career was over. However, stubborn as ever, after a period working as a chartered accountant he returned to playing in his late 20s when he appeared as a lock forward for Hartlepool, Middlesbrough and then Gosforth, who were at the time a force in English club rugby. After four years with Gosforth he became their coach, leading them to John Player Cup wins in Twickenham finals in 1976 and 1977.
Moving to Bristol to take up a job as finance director of Lucas Food Ingredients, he approached Bath with the idea of becoming their coach, but the more traditional elements at the club were wary of his outspoken reputation and he was initially rebuffed. They soon changed their mind, and both Rowell’s business and rugby careers took off. He became chief executive of Golden Wonder Foods, where he saw the potential of a little-known product called Pot Noodle, and then a director of the food company Dalgety, of which Golden Wonder became a part.
After taking the reins at Bath, Rowell began to build his formidable winning machine. He saw the potential in the Bristol fly-half Stuart Barnes. Bristol were a much bigger club than their local rivals in those days but Rowell was happy to replace John Horton, who had helped England win a grand slam, with the young fly-half who was to go on to become an important lieutenant of the coach and play for England himself.
Rowell also harnessed the talents of players such as Jeremy Guscott, Simon Halliday, Jon Hall and Nigel Redman to eclipse Leicester as the major force in England.
It was no surprise when England came calling, and an early grand slam and a triumph over South Africa in Pretoria as well as an epic World Cup quarter-final win over Australia in 1995 gave notice that Rowell’s England were a major power. But Jonah Lomu trampled over England’s World Cup hopes in their semi-final and things began to unravel for Rowell.
His strained relationship with Carling took a new turn in 1996 when he made the Bath centre Phil de Glanville his new captain. This was an eccentric move by the coach. De Glanville had been tearing up trees at his club for a while but now Rowell had to drop either Guscott or Carling, breaking up what was then arguably the most effective centre partnership in world rugby. Guscott lost his place for a while, a baffling outcome for England supporters.
Under Cooke, England often played forward-dominated rugby and Rowell did at least try to expand their horizons – under him they dominated what was then an average Five Nations Championship. He was, however, effectively a part-time coach, having combined that job with his role at the Dalgety group. He rejected an offer to extend his contract in 1997 to focus on his business career.
Later he became a non-executive director at Bristol and the club’s managing director before returning to Bath as director of rugby in 2002. He was made OBE in 1998.
Rowell’s wife, Sue (nee Cooper), a teacher whom he married in 1969, died last year. The couple had two sons, Dominic and Christian, who both survive him.
• Jack Rowell, rugby coach and businessman, born 1 November 1936; died 1 July 2024
