Jon Callard Rugby player
Jonathan Edward Brooks Callard (born 1 January 1966 in Leicester) is a coach at the Rugby Football Union's National Academy. He formerly played rugby union at fullback for Bath and England. He is the brother of ex-Newport RFC player Nigel Callard.Callard taught physical education classes and sports classes at Downside School (Somerset) in the early to mid-1990s. He also taught Biology to younger students.Callard joined Bath from Newport in 1989. In November 1993 he made his international debut for England against the All Blacks, which saw England cause a minor upset, winning 15-9. Callard enjoyed a fine debut, scoring 12 points via 4 successful penalties. In February 1994, on his 2nd appearance for England, Callard was again the hero in the controversial 1994 Five Nations Championship match between Scotland and England at the newly rebuilt Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh. He kicked all of England's points from 5 penalties, in a closely fought match, as England narrowly beat Scotland 15-14. The winning penalty came deep into stoppage time at the end of the match, when the referee erroneously gave a penalty against Scotland in the final climactic tussle for possession. The ball was handled on the ground in a ruck, and the referee, believing it had been handled illegally by a Scottish player, awarded England a penalty. Video replays later proved that the ball had in fact been handled by an England player. Callard successfully kicked the resultant penalty and celebrated wildly with his team mates, as the final whistle blew seconds later. Callard, despite his match winning performance against Scotland was heavily criticised in England's next match against Ireland, after he missed 4 penalty attempts. He also converted 4 penalties during the match which England lost 13-12 to Ireland, ending their hopes of the Grand Slam. Callard was consequently dropped from the England team and soon fell behind Mike Catt as England's first choice Full Back. The intense competition for places over the next few years meant that Callard would only gain a total of 5 caps for England, although he did score a total of 69 points. He played in one solitary match in the 1995 Rugby World Cup against Western Samoa, scoring 21 points. His last cap for England came in late 1995 against South Africa.He scored all 19 of Bath's points in their 1998 Heineken Cup final victory over Brive. In August 1998 Callard was appointed assistant coach to Andy Robinson at Bath, before being made Head Coach in 2000. In 2002 he became assistant coach to Phil Davies at Leeds Tykes and later that year was also appointed as head coach of the England U21s. He joined the Rugby Football Union's National Academy in summer 2005.Jon was appointed "Kicking Coach" to the senior England rugby team for the Rugby World Cup 2007.