After the departure of Marius Goosen for Japan, a new profile appears on the Italian staff to cover the specific role of defense coach. Next to Gonzalo Quesada we may soon see Welsh Richard Hodgesone of the two current defense coaches of the federal franchise Zebras Parma.
According to the sources of Rugbymeet the first suspect would be the former assistant coach of Cardiff Rugby, still the assistant coach with the most years of activity in the URC, having joined the technical staff of Cardiff Rugby in 2017.
The numbers of the Zebre Parma defense
Zebre Parma are in 16th and last place in the United Rugby Championship, having conceded 439 points in 13 games so far, more than 33 per game. The difference in points is -177 (made 262). The percentage of successful tackles at this point of the season is equal to 85%.
The career of Richard Hodges
His career began in 1998 as head of development for Rugby League in South Wales. After four years of activity in the world of “13-a-side rugby”, Richard moves on to Rugby Union, the traditional and best-known XV rugby, in the Welsh federation Welsh Rugby Union. In 2014 he became coach of Cardiff RFC, contributing to the growth and debut at professional level of true icons of Welsh rugby such as Sam Warburton, Josh Navidi and Ellis Jenkins. Former coach of the Welsh national rugby sevens team (2009-2014) and the national U20 team (2013-2019), he participated in five editions of the World Cup in the category and won the U20 Six Nations in 2016. Since 2017 he has been assistant coach of Cardiff Rugby with whom he ended the 2022/23 season in 10th place in the URC and in the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup. Finally, in the summer of 2023 he moved to Parma as defense coach of the Zebre.
