FORMER England and Bath hooker Graham Dawe has been reappointed head coach of Wellington Rugby Club.

Dawe, who is 64 and has held the role at the Athletic Ground for the past five seasons, said: "I'm delighted to be carrying on as head coach, especially as we are approaching the club's 150th year anniversary.

"This is a big year for Wellington. Certainly there will be challenges on the field next season, but the club has some very good young players. There is so much potential within the club.”

Dawe earned five caps for England, from 1987 to 1995. He made his debut in the Five Nations in 1987. He was selected for the Rugby World Cup finals in 1987, playing a single match, and again in 1995 when he played against Manu Samoa. That was his last England cap, earned at the age of 36, his international career being limited by the presence in the England team of Brian Moore.

He won 14 major trophies during 12 years at Bath before moving on to Sale and also represented the Barbarians, South West, Cornwall and Devon.

Dawe became player-coach of Plymouth Albion in 1999, making his debut for his home-town team on his 40th birthday. He is believed to be the first 50-year-old to play professional rugby, turning out for Plymouth Albion in the Championship and British & Irish Cup. He guided Plymouth from the bottom of National League Three South to National League 1 (now the Championship). Albion nearly went all the way to the Premiership but narrowly missed out in 2004-05.

In November, Dawe was relieved of his duties as chairman of Rugby at Plymouth Albion due to lack of finance. After leaving Albion, hee worked as a coaching consultant and helped out Premiership club Saracens. He was persuaded to return to Plymouth in 2015 when they were sitting bottom of the Championship and having given notice of administration. Dawe totally rebuilt the squad and they won 22 of their 30 games in National One before he left the club following a change of ownership.

Wellington finished ninth in Regional Two South West during the past season - down four places on the previous season. It was difficult for the side because of numerous injuries and players being unavailable.

But the club has a large number of young players, many of whom have already played lst XV rugby.

Meanwhile, Wellington were forced to cancel Saturday's (April 20) home game against Wadebridge Camels in the second round of the Papa John's Cup because they could not field a front row. "It was unfortunate, but we did not have any choice," said club secretary Ashley Colman. "No one likes cancelling games but you cannot simply put any player in the front row.”