Biography

Jon Callard was born 1 January 1966 in Leicester and attended Bassaleg Comprehensive School in Newport, Gwent and college in Cheltenham.      Full-back.     Height 5' 10" and weighing 12st 7lb.

Ever a Man for a Crisis

'J.C.' won 5 caps for England, kicking 3 conversions and 21 penalties. His international debut was in1993 against the All Blacks, when his 4 penalties contributed greatly to an England 15-9 win.

Ever a man for a crisis, it was his late penalty that snatched an England win at Murreyfield in 1994.

Notwithstanding his international exploits, the pinnacle of his career must have been the scoring of all nineteen of Bath's points, including a last minute penalty goal in the Heineken Cup Final staged at Stade Lescure, Bordeux on 31st January 1998 to beat Brive by 19 points to 18. Bath carried home Rugby Union's premier club trophy.

Apart from the well chronicled Cup and League successes, there were two other magnificent occasions

THE CROSS CODE ENCOUNTERS - 8th  and 25th May 1996

Some might say: "The Bath Team, a hard faced lot - loads of Internationals - seen it all -done it all."

Well nothing could have prepared them for the 'culture shock' they were to encounter at Maine Road Manchester. An indelible impact in the physical sense, but also in a nicer sense - as links of friendship and mutual respect were forged.

Bath originally selected a squad of 21 to this, the first game for over 100 years between Rugby Union and Rugby League, played in the evening on the Manchester City ground under League rules. What a night it was! Predictably, Wigan - so fast and so fit - trounced Bath at the League game, although our boys never gave up and won a great deal of respect from the Northern devotees. Bath players enjoyed it greatly, but were run off their feet by the end. They certainly savoured the return match under Union rules at Twickenham.  The Bath Squad (playing under League Rules) - Callard, Sleightholme, de Glanville, Adebayo, Butland, Waters, Yates, McCarthy, Robinson, Haag, Redman, Nicol, Dawe, Mallett, Sanders, Pearce, Lumsden, Catt, Ojomoh, Vander and French.

A Clash of Giants

The Wigan back division was Kris Radlinski, Jason Robison, Va'aiga Tuigamala, Gary Connolly, Martin Offiah, Henry Paul and Shaun Edwards.

Fittingly, it was John Callard who found his way to the line for the club's only try in a 6 - 82 thrashing. Callard converted, much to the delight of the Bath faithful and the R.F.U. aficionados present.     

Honours were evened up in the return game under Union rules, when Bath beat the northerners by 44 points to 19 at Twickenham. The league boys could not quite sort out the scrummaging. Victor Ubogu appeared to be coaching his opposite number at one stage!

Record Points

Formerly with Newport, his first game for Bath was on 2nd September 1989, finishing against Saracens on the 30th December 1999. He played 210 1st XV games, scoring 67 tries, 351 conversions, 1 drop goal and 356 penalties for an astonishing total of 2087 points.

JC played six games for Barbarians between 1994 and 1997, scoring a try, nineteen conversions and five penalties.

Callard was a former P.E. and Science master at Downside and cultivated the ideal experience and temperament for teaching the finer points of the game.

In August 1998 he was appointed assistant coach to Andy Robinson at Bath and donned the Head Coach mantle in 2000. He moved on to Leeds Tykes in 2002 . He is currently a member of the R.F.U.'s National Coaching Academy and kicking coach to the England squads.

© Peter Hall 2007