Our present day forwards coach who made up the B in the ABC club was in his day one of the most colourful characters in the game. A rampaging hooker with a neck seemingly as wide as his head, Cockers seemed to run around for eighty minutes with a permanent look of anger on his face. Amazingly for a man who appeared like a bull in a china shop on the pitch, in the amateur days Cockers was an antiques restorer!
Cockers' aggression, although occasionally spilling over, was usually controlled and channeled in the right way, and often a menacing look was enough to win control over an unruly opponent.
Cockers won England honours later than you would have imagined, largely due to the long term incumbant of the England number 2 jersey Brian Moore, with whom there was no love lost with Cockers! It took Clive Woodward to come to the England helm for Cockers to get a proper shot at the role, and no one will ever forget one of his early outings against the All Blacks when Cockers stood and menacingly eyeballed Norm Hewitt during the haka. By the end of the haka, Hewitt and Cockers were stood toe to toe with Cockers refusing to be intimidated.
Cockers England career would come to an end after a controversial book in which he chastised Clive Woodward's man management during the 1999 World Cup, and was never picked again. Eventually he was to find his Leicester chances limited due to the good form of long term understudy Dorian West, and after lifting the Heineken Cup with the rest of the ABC club, departed for a stint in France with Clermont Auvergne (then Montferrand) where he was to join up with former team mate Pat Howard. Both were approached to rejoin Tigers two seasons later as backs and forward coaches respectively, with Cockers also being registered again as a player. When John Wells left the club to join the RFU, Pat was appointed as head coach and Cockers became his assistant.
A hugely popular Tigers stalwart to the present day, remembered by most players as a hugely funny dressing room joker.
Players who Shook the Crumbie #31: Richard Cockerill
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mightymouse
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There is a very interesting discription of Cockers Haka moment in Norm Hewitts biography - "Gladiator"
- " As the Haka continued, the insults from the England players became louder and more numerous, their faces curling in contempt as the All blacks shouted out their ritual challenge. And then the English line began to advance on the All Black huddle, across the half way mark, led not by their captain Lawrence Dallagilo but by hooker Richard Cockerill, a pugnacious bulldog of a man who was not in the least intimidated by the Haka or the occasion. Within seconds he was face to face with Norm - each snarling at each other like a pair of angry dogs, each daring the other to lose the last vestige of self control and take the first swing.
It was an image that flashed across the sports world. The shaven white mass of Richard Cockerill glowering across at the shaven brown mass of Norm Hewitt, two warriors eager for battle,separated by bare centimetres, invitingconfrontation ...................................................................................................... ..............................."And yet, I didn't think he or the English players were disrespecting the Haka. people who say that miss the point of what the haka is about. It's a challenge - a challenge to war. And the Poms had exactly the right answer to it - you accept the challenge and throw it back. But I'll tell you this I was one motivated Mouri boy that afternoon!And I made sure Cockerill knew it too". "
hear hear Norm - shame some of your fellow countrymen don't think like you and stop whinging everytime someone accepts your challenge!
- " As the Haka continued, the insults from the England players became louder and more numerous, their faces curling in contempt as the All blacks shouted out their ritual challenge. And then the English line began to advance on the All Black huddle, across the half way mark, led not by their captain Lawrence Dallagilo but by hooker Richard Cockerill, a pugnacious bulldog of a man who was not in the least intimidated by the Haka or the occasion. Within seconds he was face to face with Norm - each snarling at each other like a pair of angry dogs, each daring the other to lose the last vestige of self control and take the first swing.
It was an image that flashed across the sports world. The shaven white mass of Richard Cockerill glowering across at the shaven brown mass of Norm Hewitt, two warriors eager for battle,separated by bare centimetres, invitingconfrontation ...................................................................................................... ..............................."And yet, I didn't think he or the English players were disrespecting the Haka. people who say that miss the point of what the haka is about. It's a challenge - a challenge to war. And the Poms had exactly the right answer to it - you accept the challenge and throw it back. But I'll tell you this I was one motivated Mouri boy that afternoon!And I made sure Cockerill knew it too". "
hear hear Norm - shame some of your fellow countrymen don't think like you and stop whinging everytime someone accepts your challenge!
I have often thought that myself Mightymouse. Should we just stadn there and let them intimdate us, let them get themselves all worked up and us all scared? No, we should eyeball them, stand up to it. It isn't disrepecting them or their traditions, it is part of their tradition, it is why they do it.
I couldn't understand the fuss surrounding Cockers actions back then, and I cannot understand it now.
I couldn't understand the fuss surrounding Cockers actions back then, and I cannot understand it now.