Louie Tonkin, one of the kingdom’s former and most memorable Bahrain Rugby Football Club (BRFC) coaches, is now celebrating the success of his current club Exeter Chiefs’ crowning glory in Europe.
The 37-year-old who was snapped up by the Premiership club last year to take on the role of senior academy coach was thrilled to see Exeter Chiefs win the European Rugby Champions Cup final.
Tonkin, who lives in Exeter and has been a professional coach since 2014, said, “The success with the Chiefs is amazing and I’m very proud to be involved with this great club. The success is highly deserved due to excellent leadership and work ethic.”
As reported by GDN Sport, 10 years after climbing out of the Championship Exeter Chiefs were crowned kings of Europe when they beat French stars Racing 92 31-27 in a superb Champions Cup final in Bristol.
The English side held out thanks to an heroic goalline defence that will go down in club folklore, before flyhalf Joe Simmonds slotted a last-minute penalty to settle it.
It is an amazing success story for Exeter, who have gradually built themselves into a major force and who can complete a double when they face Wasps in Saturday’s English Premiership final at Twickenham.
Tonkin joined the Devon outfit in a transitional role between the academy and the first team. To his delight 26 of the 31 points scored in the European final came from former academy players and, in total, eight of the match day squad had moved up from the academy.
“The players I’m working with currently will also transition into the senior squad over the next one to three years and will hopefully impact the club positively for years to come.”
Tonkin, who also had a personal promotion within the club to take on a senior group role, is thoroughly enjoying being part of the club and he believes his experience in Bahrain has helped his progression.
“Definitely my experiences in Bahrain helped my career and the essence of coaching is always the same,” he explained. “The change has been massive for me both personally and professionally.
“In Bahrain my role was to help the team achieve success through common goals and bringing the team together on-and-off the field.
“At Chiefs my role is very different as it’s largely about working with elite individuals in our region and their personal development.
“Exeter Chiefs have a huge region and my role is to find and develop the best young players to push and transition into the senior team.
“Building relationships with players is at the core of my philosophy and being in Bahrain really helped me learn more about player interactions and establishing trust.”
Tonkin’s coaching career began as the head coach at Carmarthen Quins RFC and Pontypool RFC before becoming the head of rugby at Cardiff University.
During his stint in the kingdom, he guided Bahrain to third place in the West Asia Premiership, before narrowly being defeated by Abu Dhabi Harlequins in the play-off final in his first season.
The year after, he again guided the kingdom to third place in the Premiership but this time the men in red defeated Dubai Exiles to claim the West Asia Cup.
However, it is the legendary 2018-19 season which he is immortalised for in which Bahrain claimed the Asia Rugby Western Clubs Champions League by defeating the Abu Dhabi Harlequins in front of the famous ‘Red Wall’.
The team then dominated the Premiership by winning 14 of their 15 games before a victory over Dubai Exiles in the West Asia Cup saw them claim a hat-trick and prove themselves as the dominant force in the continent’s western region.
Tonkin added, “I miss Bahrain so much and miss the people more. I can only imagine what the atmosphere will be like when they reach another final.”
BRFC, who successfully defended their West Asia Premiership title earlier this year, have started training again, hoping competitive action will take place later this year.