Steve Bates
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"Steve Bates" is a former England/English rugby union player and current rugby coach. He played at Scrum-half (rugby union)/scrum-half for London Wasps, where he formed a successful partnership with Fly-half (rugby union)/fly-half Rob Andrew. He was capped once for England, against in Bucharest in 1989, and toured South Africa with England in 1994.

In 1995, when Andrew left Wasps to become Director of Rugby at Newcastle Falcons, Bates followed him, becoming the Falcons' head coach. Under Bates, Newcastle were promoted to the Guinness Premiership/Premiership at the end of the 1996–97 season and went on to top the league at the first attempt, in 1997–98; they reached the final of the Tetley's Bitter Cup in 1999 and won the trophy (by then known as the Powergen Cup in 2001. Bates left Newcastle in March 2003 and, a year later, was appointed as head coach of Border Reivers (rugby)/Border Reivers, taking over from New Zealander Tony Gilbert, who was returning home. Bates successfully guided Borders back into the Heineken Cup in 2006–07 and, during his time with the club, also coached Scotland A to the final of the 2006 Churchill Cup, which they lost to the New Zealand M?ori rugby union team/New Zealand M?ori, after wins against England Saxons and .

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We gave away a few easy tries but I am still pleased at the way we played. There are one or two things for us to work on but there were positives as well.

I am particularly delighted that Ben has recovered because he has been a real force for us this season.

The specific risk in individual countries can be very high, and South Africa is not really an exception.

We're really looking forward to coming down to Newcastle, playing in front of a big crowd and showing how much we have improved as a side since October.

You can be reasonably sure you're getting a decent investment there.