Dean Richards (born 11 July 1963) is a rugby union coach and former player for Leicester Tigers, England and British & Irish Lions.
[11] He made his senior England debut on 1 March 1986, against Ireland at Twickenham in the 1986 Five Nations Championship, scoring two tries in a 25–20 points win.
Injuries limited Richards to only 15 appearances for Leicester in 1988–89, though he was able to feature in the losing 1988–89 Pilkington Cup final against Bath,[15] before being selected for the 1989 British Lions tour to Australia.
Richards was controversially dropped after a pool stage victory against the United States as England made the final but lost to Australia.
Due to injury to Martin Johnson, Richards started the 1992–93 season in Leicester's second row, but returned to his accustomed position of number eight by the time of the 1992–93 Pilkington Cup first round match against London Scottish.
[18] Despite not being selected for England in the 1993 Five Nations Championship, Richards was picked for the 1993 British Lions tour to New Zealand and started in all three test matches.
He was selected in England's 1995 World Cup squad, overlooked for the first two group stage matches he was recalled for the final pool game against Samoa and played in the quarter-final against Australia and the semi-final against New Zealand.
[25] Richards took over from Bob Dwyer as coach of Leicester in 1998,[26] and in his first full season as Director of Rugby won the Allied Dunbar Premiership, the third time in club history.
[32] Grenoble struggled in the French rugby championship and it was announced in May 2005 that Richards would leave the club at the end of the season by mutual consent.
He had orchestrated and had "central control" over a fake blood injury to Harlequins player Tom Williams to bring a more experienced replacement kicker onto the field during a Heineken Cup match against Leinster.
The doctor involved, Wendy Chapman, who cut the player's lip to try to cover up the incident, was reprimanded by the Medical Council, but escaped a ban.
[40] In May 2022, it was announced that Richards would be stepping down as Director of Rugby at the end of the season but continuing to work as a part-time consultant for the Falcons.