{"id":730404,"date":"2026-08-07T12:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T12:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/730404\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T12:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T12:30:10","slug":"departing-wales-star-announced-as-director-of-rugby-at-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/730404\/","title":{"rendered":"Departing Wales star announced as director of rugby at club"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aaron Wainwright may have left Wales to begin a new chapter with Leicester Tigers, but the international rugby star won’t be leaving his roots behind.<\/p>\n

Just weeks after completing his move from the Dragons to the Premiership giants<\/a>, Wainwright has been announced as director of rugby at Whiteheads RFC \u2013 the community club where his rugby journey first began.<\/p>\n

Despite now being based in the East Midlands, the back-row forward will remain heavily involved with the Newport<\/a> club, joining the coaching team for the coming season while also helping to develop the next generation of players and support the club’s long-term growth.<\/p>\n

Announcing the news on social media, Whiteheads said: “Waino is staying! Despite his move to Leicester Tigers, Waino will be staying on as part of the coaching team for the coming season.<\/p>\n

“He’ll also be involved with the next generations and building the club.”<\/p>\n

For those familiar with Wainwright, the appointment comes as little surprise.<\/p>\n

Long before he became a Wales international and secured a move to one of England’s biggest clubs, Wainwright was a youngster at Whiteheads after deciding football was no longer the path for him.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Aaron Wainwright at a Whiteheads RFC training session(Image: Twitter)<\/p>\n

Having spent time in the academies at Cardiff<\/a> City and Newport County, he discovered his love for rugby at Whiteheads before progressing through Cardiff Metropolitan University, Newport RFC and the Dragons.<\/p>\n

That pathway eventually led to international honours, with Wainwright becoming a key figure for both Dragons and Wales. He earned his first Test cap in 2018 and has become arguably the national side’s most important player.<\/p>\n

Throughout his rise in the professional game, however, Whiteheads has remained close to his heart.<\/p>\n

\"Aaron<\/p>\n

Aaron Wainwright coaching the Whiteheads RFC team(Image: Huw Evans)<\/p>\n

Last year, WalesOnline told how Wainwright regularly returned to Whiteheads after Dragons matches<\/a> to coach youngsters before heading home.<\/p>\n

“It gives me the balance in my life,” he explained.<\/p>\n

“I’ve got all these eyes on me at the Dragons and Wales, then I go back to Whiteheads where it’s just normal. They don’t treat me any differently. It reminds me where I’ve come from.”<\/p>\n

That connection was clear again when Whiteheads members turned out in force for Wainwright’s Dragons farewell at Rodney Parade earlier this year.<\/p>\n

“It all started for me at Whiteheads,” Wainwright said after his final home appearance.<\/p>\n

“I go down as often as I can, so for them to come and repay the favour to me tonight was awesome to see and to have that support was great.”<\/p>\n

Before leaving Dragons, Wainwright also hosted coaching sessions and rugby camps at Whiteheads.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aaron Wainwright may have left Wales to begin a new chapter with Leicester Tigers, but the international rugby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55,9015],"class_list":["post-730404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wales-rugby-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}