Ex Rotherham Titan Lee Blackett is now a Premiership winner

Blackett is the assistant coach at Bath, who beat Leicester 23-21 in the Premiership Play-Off final at Twickenham to top the pile for the first time since 1996.

Bath finished top in the regular season and scored an average of five tries per match, more than any other team in English rugby history.

Blackett was appointed to the post two years ago and has been influential in sharpening Bath’s attacking game.

They finished bottom of the Premiership only three years ago.

Blackett has already been added to England head coach Steve Borthwick’s coaching team for the summer tour to Argentina and the United States.

Back in his playing days he was made captain by Rotherham at the age of 23 and by 31 he was appointed head coach by directors Nick Cragg and Martin Jenkinson.

Blackett took Rotherham to the Championship play-offs in successive years and when Wasps picked him up in 2015 he became the youngest head coach to lead a club to a Premiership final.

Wasps’ demise saw him move to Scarlets and then to Bath.

Bath head coach Johann van Graan rates Blackett as having a “fantastic rugby IQ”.

More recently he coached England A to wins over Australia A and Ireland A.

Borthwick said: “Lee has a proven track record of developing teams that play smart and effective attacking rugby.”