Name Michael Bradley | Role Coach | |
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Michael Bradley (born 17 November 1962) is a former Munster and Irish rugby union player. He is the current Head Coach of Italian Pro14 side Zebre.
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Playing career
He played primarily at scrum half and was capped 40 times for Ireland, 15 times as captain, scoring 40 points in the process. He made his debut in 1984 against Australia and was a member of the 1985 Triple Crown team. His final game for Ireland was in 1995 against the All Blacks
Coaching career
Bradley was appointed Irish U-21 coach on a full-time capacity in 2002 by the Irish Rugby Football Union.
In 2003 Bradley was appointed head coach of Connacht Rugby as well as being appointed head coach of Ireland A, positions he held for seven years until leaving Connacht and Irish Rugby in 2010. Under Bradley Connacht Rugby secured qualification to the playoff stages of the Amlin Challenge Cup on six of his seven years in charge, reaching the semi-final on two occasions.
In early 2008, Bradley was appointed the Irish interim head coach and lead the senior international rugby team on their summer tour to New Zealand and Australia.
In 2010 to 2011, Bradley was part of the Georgian International Rugby Coaching team that completed a Grand Slam in the 2011 ENC Championship.
In May 2011, Bradley was appointed head coach of Edinburgh on a two-year contract. Under Bradley, Edinburgh Rugby had their must successful season in their history. Edinburgh Rugby topped their ERC qualification pool (which included London Irish, Racing Metro 92 and Cardiff Blues) and reached the 2012 Heineken Cup semi final for the first time in their history after overcoming French giants Toulouse (who won the Top14 that year) in the quarter final in the Scottish capital. Edinburgh Rugby lost out to Ulster Rugby in a closely contested semi-final.
In February 2012, Bradley was appointed Scotland A coach and delivered a victory over the England Saxons in the Scottish Borders region with a winning margin of 35 points to nil. Bradley was the assistant head coach of the Georgia national rugby union team from June 2013 until 2016, working as the defence coach. In January 2017, he was appointed head coach of Romanian club CSM Bucuresti. Ahead of the 2017–18 Pro14 season, Bradley was appointed as the new Head Coach of Italian side Zebre.