'No surprise to us': Lee Blackett's rise from Rotherham Titans to England rugby coach
More than a few knowing glances will have been exchanged among the clubhouse patrons and boardroom bigwigs at Clifton Lane this week when the news broke that Lee Blackett has been appointed as England's attack coach.
“He was always destined to go far,” or words to that effect, will have been uttered about a coach who cut his teeth at Rotherham Titans.
Blackett will leave Bath at the end of the month to join Steve Borthwick’s revamped coaching team with the autumn series opener against Australia on November 1 the first of around 21 Tests before the next World Cup in Australia in 2027.
The 42-year-old former Wasps boss will take charge of the attack after impressing in the role as a temporary appointment during the successful summer tour to Argentina and the USA when Richard Wigglesworth was on British and Irish Lions duty.
For those in the know, Blackett’s ascension to the England coaching ranks was always just a matter of time. He may have been born in Cheshire, but Blackett’s rugby career was largely spent in Yorkshire.
After starting out at nearby Fylde, he first crossed the Pennines to join the Rotherham Titans academy, going on to play more than 50 games for them – some in the Premiership - and captain them, by age 23.
Leeds Tykes snapped him up at the end of the 2005/06 season and he spent six years at Headingley as they yo-yoed between the top two divisions, learning all the time from the likes of Stuart Lancaster and Neil Back.
By May 2013, Titans had seen enough in him to make him their head coach at the tender age of 30.
He inherited a team that had finished seventh in the Championship and took them to successive fourth-place finishes and the semi-finals of the promotion play-offs, losing to Bristol both times. After he left Rotherham in the summer of 2015 to take up the position of backs coach at Premiership Wasps, the Titans in his absence finished 10th, 12th, 12th and relegated the next three years.
A memory that sticks out of him during his time as the top man at Clifton Lane was in his office on Boxing Day, 2014, after his side had just suffered a shock defeat to lowly Moseley.
“Did you have a good Christmas,” ventured a local reporter trying to break the tension in the room.
He didn’t respond, but just continued to stare out of the window, brooding over the defeat with a face that suggested the Grinch had stolen the Blackett’s Christmas.
A decade on, having worked on the coaching staffs of Wasps, Scarlets and Bath - improving all of their attacking shapes - Blackett is tasked with helping restore England to the top of world rugby.
After his impressive audition in the summer, when England racked up 97 points in three tour victories over Argentina (twice) and the United States, Blackett has been called upon to make the changes more permanent, with talk already turning to the next World Cup.
“It’s five campaigns. Do I think we’ve got enough time? Yes,” said Blackett, England’s 11th attack coach since 2016 when Borthwick’s predecessor Eddie Jones arrived at Twickenham.
“You’re looking for each campaign to get better and better. Five campaigns is enough to see people, it’s enough to develop our game, definitely.
“The most important thing for me is I want to win and my job is to put us in the best place to score points and score tries.
“Momentum’s massive in sport, and especially at the start of campaigns and so we are talking about Australia. If you’re thinking too far ahead, all of a sudden momentum can go.
“How many teams have you seen lose momentum in the start? You never get it back. And in international rugby, because you’ve got four games in the autumn and the Six Nations, you have to get off to a flying start. So Australia is massive.”
He used to talk like that in his time at Rotherham.
All about the process, always what’s next.
"The Titans family are very proud of what Lee has achieved,” said Nick Cragg, the club chairman who was part of the committee that took a gamble on that rookie head coach 12 years ago.
"Not least of all since Rotherham had faith in and gave their ex captain his first coaching position.
"We have watched his progress with interest and pride and are not surprised at him being offered the England national side’s attack coach position.”
Here, here, proclaim the patrons of the Clifton Lane clubhouse, with a clink of their glasses.