London Welsh have appointed former England Sevens head coach Mike Friday as assistant coach as they push to bring the glory days back to Old Deer Park.
Friday joins London Welsh from Blackheath, where he spent four seasons as first XV coach, while balancing his property career in the city.
The switch will see the 38-year-old once again with team up with Phil Greening who is now head coach at London Welsh.
The pair first crossed paths during their playing days at London Wasps and then with England Sevens when Greening was assistant coach to Friday.
“Joining London Welsh is very exciting and I’m really looking forward to linking up with Phil Greening again,” said Friday.
“We feel we complement each other really well and that was the basis for our very successful partnership in the England Sevens set up.
“We have a highly ambitious team at London Welsh and Phil and myself are looking forward to coaching the players so that they reach their full potential.”
“I’m absolutely delighted that Mike has come on board,” added Greening.
“When I took over as head coach I wanted to get the right management to create the right environment, which is key to any success.
“Mike brings an enormous amount of coaching ability and also the same mindset of myself and all at London Welsh. He will bring the sort of expertise and commitment we are looking for at the club and this, I feel, speaks volumes for the work that John Taylor [London Welsh Managing Director] and the board are doing to take London Welsh back into the top flight.”
After captaining England at the 2001 Sevens World Cup in Argentina, Friday took on the role of player/coach assisting Joe Lydon who is now the Welsh Rugby Union’s head of rugby performance and development.
He took over as head coach in 2004 and guided England to their first London Sevens title in his second tournament in charge. He followed that up by helping England to their first ever Dubai title
His other achievements include four consecutive Hong Kong Sevens titles as well as steering England to a silver medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games held in Melbourne.
