Rhys Lovegrove (born 11 March 1987) is an Australian rugby league coach who is the head coach of and assistant coach at the London Broncos in the Championship and a former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. He played for the Bradford Bulls, Hull Kingston Rovers and the London Broncos, primarily as a forward and occasionally as a. After retiring from playing Lovegrove moved into coaching and took up his first head coaching role as the head coach of the Keighley Cougars at Cougar Park in June 2019.

Background

Lovegrove was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. A Como Jannali Crocadiles junior who, while attending Endeavour Sports High School, played for the Australian Schoolboys Team in 2004.

Playing career

He was initially signed by Hull Kingston Rovers on loan from the St George-Illawarra Dragons until the end of the 2007 Super League season, but then made the move permanent. In September 2014, he joined the London Broncos. He was named in the Scotland Training Squad for the 2008 Rugby League World Cup, but he was forced to withdraw through injury.

Coaching

Bradford Bulls

In August 2016 he announced his retirement due to injury from playing to join the coaching staff at the Bradford Bulls.

Keighley Cougars

Following periods on the coaching staff at Bradford and Doncaster, Lovegrove joined Keighley Cougars as assistant coach in January 2019 and was appointed as head coach in June 2019 following the sacking of Craig Lingard the previous month. In 2022 Lovegrove coached Keighley to a perfect season as the Cougars won promotion from League 1 to the RFL Championship and was named as League 1 coach of the year in the RFL end-of-season awards. Lovegrove left Keighley in May 2023, by mutual consent.

London Broncos

He joined the London Broncos as assistant coach in June 2023.

Hull KR

On 19 Oct 2023 he returned to Hull KR in the role of assistant coach