Richie Dixon

Richie Dixon (born Scotland) is a former rugby player, former Head Coach of the Scotland National team, former Head Coach of the Georgian National team and former Head Coach of Glasgow Caledonians now known as Glasgow Warriors.

As a rugby player he was to captain the old amateur Glasgow District XV that was later to become the Glasgow Warriors on professionalism.^[2] He also coached the Glasgow District in its famous unbeaten 1989-90 season; topped off with a 22-11 win against Fiji at Hughenden.^[3]

He coached the Scotland B national rugby union team for many years and was also involved in coaching the Sweden national rugby union team.^[4]

He was Scotland boss from 1995 to 1998. As Scotland boss he took Scotland to within one game of a grand slam when they were beaten by England in a decider at Twickenham. Dixon lost his job in 1998^[5] after a defeat by Italy in the warm up to the Five Nations. His success rate in the role was 50% just below Jim Telfer's 53.8% but ahead of Ian McGeechan's 42%.^[6]

He took over the Glasgow club from New Zealander Keith Robertson in January 1999. As part of the coaching set-up Rob Moffat joined him as assistant coach.

During Dixon's tenure Glasgow Caledonians dropped its merged identity and rebranded itself back to Glasgow Rugby in 2002.

Dixon was replaced as Warriors boss by New Zealander Kiwi Searancke on 27 June 2002.^[7] when he became the SRU's Head of Coach Development. He was to retain some input to the Warriors as he was to become official team manager offering advice to his successor.^[8] Glasgow's assistant Rob Moffat was to become Head Coach of the newly reformed Border Reivers.

Searancke's reign at Glasgow was short-lived as it was felt he was overly critical of the players. This meant Dixon had to step in as caretaker in April 2003 when the New Zealander left the club.^[9] The caretaker role only lasted a few weeks as the club quickly settled on Hugh Campbell as the new Glasgow Head Coach.

As well as Head of Coach Development, Dixon was made Assistant Coach at Border Reivers in 2006.^[10] However, financial troubles caused the Borders club to fold in 2007.

Dixon held the SRU's coaching development role until 2009 when he fell victim to cost cutting.^[11]

In 2010 he was to become the national coach of the Georgian rugby team and coached them at the World Cup.^[12] He was awarded the country's Honorary Order of Excellence by the President for services to rugby in Georgia.^[13]

In 2012 he became a project manager for World Rugby advising emergent countries.^[6] He has special remit for Georgia and Romania.^[14]

External links

[*http://www.glasgowwarriors.com/articles/news/000624.php Richie Dixon on Andy Nicol]

References

1. ↑ http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-110686183.html
2. ↑ "McAslan takes coach route to success". Herald Scotland. 
3. ↑ "Warriors Honour Winning Greats". scottishrugby.org. 
4. ↑ https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=CjlAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=OlkMAAAAIBAJ&pg=4407%2C7225830
5. ↑ "Rugby Union: Dixon opts to jump before he is pushed". The Independent. 
6. 1 2 http://www.scotsman.com/sport/rugby/latest/rugby-dixon-rated-for-scots-job-1-2687240
7. ↑ "Glasgow Warriors Announce New Head Coach". realise.com. 
8. ↑ "Dixon quits as Glasgow coach". Herald Scotland. 
9. ↑ "BBC SPORT - Rugby Union - Scottish - Glasgow part with coach". bbc.co.uk. 
10. ↑ "COACHING COMEBACK FOR RICHIE DIXON". glasgowhawks.com. 
11. ↑ "BBC Sport - Georgia coach Richie Dixon warns Scots of power shift". BBC Sport. 
12. ↑ http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/rugby-union/richie-dixon-to-lead-georgia-into-world-cup-against-scotland-1.1041530
13. ↑ "Six Amazing and Thought-Provoking Days in Tbilisi (Georgia)". Spotlight on Sport. 
14. ↑ "Dixon warns Ireland rugby stars: Watch out for Georgia". Breaking News.