Shaun Edwards to leave Wales after Rugby World Cup to join Wigan Warriors as Adrian Lam named interim head coach

Former rugby league great won 25 major trophies in 15 years with Wigan, and will return to the 13-man code after next year's Rugby World Cup

Shaun Edwards will depart after the 2019 World Cup (PA)

Shaun Edwards will leave the Wales national team next year to take up the vacant head coach role with Wigan Warriors in what will be a homecoming for the former rugby league great.

The 51-year-old will follow Warren Gatland out of the door after the 2019 Rugby World Cup next autumn and leave rugby union altogether to take charge of the club that he spent 15 trophy-laden years with, having captained the most successful side that the 13-man code has seen and lifted 25 major trophies during his time there.

"Shaun Edwards is a legendary figure in both codes of rugby as a supremely gifted player and as a highly successful coach," Wigan Warriors’ chairman Ian Lenagan said. “He is an inspirational figure, a born leader and a winner at everything he has turned his attention to. He also has Wigan Rugby League Club in his blood. We’re delighted to have been able to bring Shaun back to the club which he represented with such distinction.

“Shaun will undoubtedly inject some fresh ideas and impetus into the game, drawing on his extensive experience in rugby union, and we’re proud to have made such a progressive appointment. We’re looking forward to how he builds on the very strong foundations that we have in place at Wigan.”

With Edwards set to fulfil his contract with the Welsh Rugby Union, Wigan will still need to appoint a new coach for the 2019 campaign given that current incumbent Shaun Wane will leave at the end of this season to join the Scottish Rugby Union set-up as high performance coach. With that in mind, the Super League side has appointed former Wigan half-back Adrian Lam as an interim head coach to fill the gap until Edwards’ arrival.

Former Papua New Guinea head coach Lam spent four years with Warriors from 2001 to 2004, and was part of the side that won the 2002 Challenge Cup final as well as finishing runners-up in Super League in 2001 and 2003.

Shaun Edwards will return to rugby league (PA)

Edwards scored 274 tries for Wigan, putting him fourth on their all-time try-scorers list, before leaving the club in 1997, and he also captained England at the 1995 Rugby League World Cup where they reached the final but suffered defeat by Australia.

Since retiring from the game, Edwards has carved out a successful coaching career in union that began with a dominant decade at Premiership side Wasps. Initially joining Nigel Melville’s backroom staff as defence and backs coach in 2001, he linked up with Gatland for the first time a year later and replaced the Kiwi as head coach in 2005, before leaving the club in 2011.

But by that time he had already followed Gatland into his Welsh set-up in 2008 as defence coach – having also joined Gatland and Sir Ian McGeechan on the 2009 British and Irish Lions tour. Gatland was also offered the chance to take charge of the England Saxons – the second string national team – at the same time but declined after he was overlooked for the top job in favour of Stuart Lancaster.

Edwards has gone on to gain global success for his methods, and was named the Rugby World international coach of the year in 2008 after Wasps clinched their most-recent Premiership title just a year after lifting the Heineken Cup.

The announcement continues the Welsh revamp of their post-World Cup coaching staff, with current Scarlets head coach Wayne Pivac already confirmed as Gatland’s successor. His backroom team will not be announced until the end of the current season, but it is widely expected that he will look to bring a number of his Scarlets team with him in the form of attack coach Stephen Jones, defence coach Byron Hayward and forwards coach Ioan Cunningham.

Gatland’s assistant Rob Howley has already said that he will move on from the national team next year, while Robin McBryde and Neil Jenkins are expected to follow them out of the door.