Simon Amor

Simon Daniel Edward Amor (born 25 April 1979) is an English rugby union coach and former player. Amor played in the scrum-half and fly-half positions for London Scottish and captained the England national rugby sevens team. He has been the head coach of London Scottish, England sevens, Hong Kong, and, as recently as 2020, was appointed defence-coach for the England rugby union team.[6]

Simon Amor
Birth nameSimon Daniel Edward Amor
Date of birth (1979-04-25) 25 April 1979
Place of birthKingston, London, England
Height5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
Weight76 kg (12 st 0 lb; 168 lb)
SchoolHampton School
UniversityCambridge University
Rugby union career
Position(s) Scrum-half
Senior career
Years Team Apps (Points)

1997–1998
1999
1999

2002–2006
2006–2008
2008–2010		 Harlequins
London Irish
Blackheath
Coventry
Rugby Lions
Gloucester
London Wasps
London Scottish
1
11
10
(11)
(83)
(9)
International career
Years Team Apps (Points)
  England Students
National sevens team(s)
Years Team Comps
2001–2006 England
Coaching career
Years Team
2010–2011
2011–2013
2013–2021
2016, 2021
2020
2021
2021–2022
2022–		 London Scottish
London Scottish (Director of Rugby)
England sevens
Great Britain sevens[1][2]
England (defence coach)[3]
Hong Kong[4]
Japan sevens (technical director)[5]
Japan sevens[5]
Medal record
Men's rugby sevens
Representing  England
Commonwealth Games
Silver medal – second place 2006 Melbourne Team competition
Representing  Great Britain (as coach)
Summer Olympic Games
Silver medal – second place 2016 Rio Team competition

Early life

Amor was educated at Denmead Preparatory School, Hampton School, St. Mary's University College (Twickenham) and Cambridge University. At Cambridge he earned a blue playing in the 2000 Varsity Rugby Match for Cambridge University RFC against Oxford University RFC at Twickenham Stadium and went on to graduate with a degree in Management Studies. He also completed an MBA whilst playing professional rugby.

Playing career

Amor started his rugby career at London Irish where he played as a junior before joining the senior squad. During the summer of 2002, Amor signed a professional contract with Gloucester. He has previously played for Harlequins, London Irish, Blackheath, Coventry and the Rugby Lions. Whilst at Gloucester he was a replacement in the 2003 Powergen Cup Final in which Gloucester defeated Northampton Saints.[7]

In August 2002, Amor represented the England Sevens at the 2002 Commonwealth Games.He played again at the 2006 Commonwealth Games winning a silver medal. In 2003 he was part of the England squad to face the Barbarian F.C. at Twickenham. In December 2004, Amor was the inaugural IRB Sevens Player of the Year. Amor captained England to win the Hong Kong 7s four times.

In August 2005, Amor was instrumental in Gloucester's victory at the Middlesex Sevens.

In May 2006, Amor joined London Wasps, as replacement for their retiring scrum-half, Matt Dawson. In August 2006, Amor was the key playmaker in London Wasps's victory at the Middlesex Sevens.

Coaching

In 2008, Amor signed as a player/coach for London Scottish. He became a Performance Advisor at UK Sport[8] and was appointed on to the Advisory Board of Ultimate Rugby Sevens. In May 2010, Amor took over the role of Head Coach for London Scottish, and in November 2011, took over the role of Director of Rugby at the club. In 2012 he led them to promotion to the RFU Championship.

England

Amor was Head Coach of the England women sevens team at the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens. In September 2013 he took over the role of Head Coach of the England national rugby sevens team and was the longest serving England 7s coach. He was responsible for bringing together the men's and women's programs and oversaw them both. In 2016, Amor was appointed Head Coach of the Great Britain Sevens team who won a silver medal at the Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil.

2017 saw England finish 2nd in the World Rugby Sevens Series, equaling their highest ever finish. The previous time this was achieved was in 2006 when Amor was captain of the squad. England were runners up at the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens. Amor coached the men's seven teams to qualification for the 2020 Summer Olympics, but moved on to coach the 15s game before the event.

In January 2020, he was appointed attack coach of the England Rugby team, under Eddie Jones[9] where the team won the 2020 Six Nations Championship and the Autumn Nations Cup. He left the role in May 2021, following England’s poor showing in the 2021 Six Nations.[10]

Other sevens coaching

Amor is currently the head coach of the Japan national rugby sevens team.

After being appointed the coach of Hong Kong in mid-2021 for a brief spell,[4] Amor went back into coaching sevens rugby, being the technical director of Japan starting in November 2021.[5] Amor remained in the role throughout the teams World Rugby Sevens season. In September 2022, before the beginning of the following season (2022–23), Amor was appointed head coach of the sevens team by the JRFU.[5] It is Amor's third national sevens team he has coached, and the first outside Great Britain.

See also

References
  1. "Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games: Men's sevens squads". World Rugby. 6 July 2021.
  2. "Team GB Names 2016 GB Olympic Men's Rugby Team". teamgb.com. 19 July 2016.
  3. "AMOR AND PROUDFOOT JOIN ENGLAND MEN'S COACHING TEAM". englandrugby.com. Rugby Football Union (RFU). 13 January 2020.
  4. McNicol, Andrew (7 June 2021). "Hong Kong rugby appoint England legend Simon Amor as interim men's 15s head coach to oversee Asia Rugby Championship title defence". South China Morning Post (SCMP).
  5. "JRFU Appoint Simon Amor as Head Coach of Japan Men's Sevens". en.rugby-japan.jp. Japan Rugby Football Union (JRFU). 29 September 2022.
  6. "The i". George Ford's advice for England's new attack coach: Keep it simple, please.
  7. "Clockwatch: Powergen Cup final". BBC. 5 April 2003. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
  8. "Amor to Join UK Sport". UK Sport. Retrieved 27 May 2008.
  9. "Amor and Proudfoot Join England Men's Coaching Team". RFU. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  10. "England's Amor and Ryles step down". BBC Sport. Retrieved 14 May 2021.
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