Director of Rugby, Tony Penn, has bolstered Pocklington RUFC's coaching resources for the 2021-22 season by bringing in Mike Umaga to his coaching set up.
Umaga has a stellar playing and coaching pedigree. He was already a Samoan rugby union international when he came to England to play rugby league in 1995. After two years of Super League he switched back to rugby union for a long career as a player, player-coach and club coach, including coaching Rotherham Titans during their brief period in the RFU Premiership.
He is now Director of Rugby up the road at Bishop Burton College, but has agreed to help Penn at Pocklington. Penn and Umaga have known each other for years, including coaching together at Bishop Burton; and Penn's links with the Umaga rugby dynasty go back even further - Mike's brother and ex-All Black captain, Tana, was Penn's skipper at the Hurricanes back in New Zealand in the early 2000s.
Penn welcomed Mike Umaga to Percy Road this week, saying: "It's brilliant that Mike has agreed to come on board at Pock. We've got some talented young backs that can only get better with his advice and experience, and you could see straightaway at his first training session how the guys were responding to him. As a fellow adopted East Yorkshireman I'm really looking forward to working with him at Pocklington."
Pic: Tony Penn (left) welcomes Mike Umaga to Pocklington RUFC this week.
