Hawick RFC have confirmed that Darren Cunningham will be their head coach for next season. Cunningham, will take over the reins from Nikki Walker who will continue to the end of this season, including their relegation play-off match against Edinburgh Academicals FC at the end of April.
Cunningham, who hails from the north east of England, formerly coached Jed-Forest and Kelso, and midway through this season returned to Poynder Park to act as assistant to head coach Adam Roxburgh. Kelso are currently on the brink of promotion back to National League One – the Borders club need three points from their remaining two matches against Peebles and Aberdeenshire to achieve this aim.
“I am absolutely delighted and honoured to accept the position of head coach of Hawick RFC for the 2017-18 season. Having coached in the Borders for a number of years, I have always admired Hawick as a team and a club and can’t wait to get started working with the players, staff and committee in building on the good work that Nikki and his staff have done over the past three seasons,“ said Cunningham.
An RFU level 4 qualified coach, Cunningham has also worked with Antwerp Rugby Club in Belgium , Scottish Exiles and Northumberland Rugby Union.
“We are delighted to bring Darren to Mansfield Park next season, and we look forward to working with him to prepare for the new season. We have an exciting crop of talented youngsters playing at the club at the moment and Darren will be central in their development, so that they can integrate with our established players for the coming year,” said Hawick president John Thorburn.