Leicester Tigers Head Coach Dan McKellar has appointed Petrus du Plessis to his senior coaching team as Interim Scrum Coach.
The South African will remain in the role until the arrival of new Scrum Coach Dan Palmer, when his commitments with the Wallabies are complete following the Australian national side’s Rugby World Cup campaign.
Born in South Africa, du Plessis represented St Helens, Orrell and Sedgley Park between 2001-2009 before joining Nottingham Rugby ahead of the 2009/10 Championship season.
He joined Saracens a year later and, during the next sevens seasons, featured in three league and two European Champions Cup winning campaigns.
The front-rower moved to London Irish in 2017 and then Glasgow Warriors in 2018, spending two seasons in Scotland before retiring in 2020 – including a final season as player/coach.
JONNY WILKINSON: DREAM TEAM
FRONT-ROW
1. Jason Leonard (England): He was seen by Wilkinson as “someone who inspired and brought energy to the game” with impact.
2. Keith Wood (Ireland): “You need someone here in this position who can bring you the set piece control but at the same time I think they need to be aggressive, be someone that runs hard, someone that doesn’t stop, never gives up.”
3. Craig Dowd (New Zealand): “As with all tight heads what you want is someone who doesn’t take no for an answer, someone who is maybe a little quieter but someone you just don’t mess with”
SECOND-ROW
4. Bakkies Botha (South Africa): “Someone incredibly fierce but very very down to earth” and “at times he’s exactly what a team needs.”
5. Martin Johnson (England): “intelligent, another massive leader, gets himself around the park. My captain”