Head of Coaching Announcement

14th May 2019

Bective Rangers FC are delighted to announce the appointment of former Dragons & Grenoble Head Coach and Connacht, Leinster and Ireland International player, Bernard Jackman as the Head of Coaching for the coming season.

Jackman joins the club after an 18 month spell as Head Coach of The Dragons and a 4 year spell with FC Grenoble where he held numerous positions including Head Coach and Defence & Skills Coach.

Jackman began his professional playing career in 1997 at Connacht Rugby before moving to Sale Sharks for a two year stint in 2000. While there, Jackman won the European Challenge Cup. He then moved back to Connacht Rugby in 2002 before joining Leinster Rugby in 2005 where he saw out his playing career. While at Leinster, he won the 2008/09 Heineken Cup and the 2007/08 Magners League titles. Jackman represented Ireland at U19, U21 and college levels and captained Ireland ‘A’ bef ore graduating to the Senior Ireland team where he won 9 caps.

After retirement, Jackman moved into coaching and took up roles at several Junior Leinster Clubs, including Tullow RFC, Newbridge RFC and Coolmine RFC and was Director of Rugby at Clontarf FC from 2009-11. Jackman moved to Grenoble where he was appointed on a consultancy basis as skills and forwards coach and gradually moved his way up the ranks to Head Coach in 2016. In 2017, Jackman became Head Coach at the Dragons in Wales.

“I’m excited for this new challenge and can’t wait to get started”, says Jackman. “I always found Bective to be a club with great people and having helped out the squad at the end of the season I think they have the potential for future success”.

“We are absolutely thrilled to have a coach of Bernard’s experience & calibre join the club”, says current President, Barbara Culleton.

Bective Rangers FC is extremely excited to welcome Bernard to the team and look forward to a successful & long relationship with him.

Emmet Sheridan, Director of Rugby commented, “After a thorough search, we are delighted to have secured Bernard as Head of Coaching. We know Bernard will establish the structures and processes required to bring Bective back to the AIL”.

Listen to Bernard speak about joining Bective Rangers FC on ‘Game on’, a 2FM sports show