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The four names on the PWR Director of Rugby of the Season shortlist
Evolution, reinvention, breaking new ground – the four PWR Director of Rugby of the Season, presented by Gallagher nominees have helped to push their clubs on to new heights.
Alex Austerberry (Saracens), Tom Hudson (Sale Sharks), Barney Maddison (Trailfinders Women), and Dan Murphy (Gloucester Hartpury) are the four coaches nominated for the honour as part of the Rugby Awards 2026, presented by Gallagher.
The winner will be announced at London’s iconic Old Billingsgate on Wednesday, June 10, and for the first time, TNT Sports and HBO Max will broadcast the black-tie event live from 9pm.
Before then, the four coaches have been reflecting on what has brought their sides’ success this season.
Alex Austerberry - Saracens
Now in his seventh year in charge of Saracens, Alex Austerberry is not out to reinvent the wheel, but he does always want to push his team and the game on.
His side have finished in the top four for an eighth straight campaign, winning two more games than they did last term, where they lost in the final to Gloucester Hartpury.
This season saw Austerberry spend time with Canada’s team at the World Cup before bringing the Canucks’ head coach Kevin Rouet into his backroom staff at Saracens.
He praises the team effort as responsible for his nomination, also reflecting on a key tenet of his approach to the game.
“As a coach you are always bouncing ideas around, whether that is coaches in the international arena, coaches that you are working with on a daily basis, or sessions you drop into from other sports,” he said.
“As a coach, if you are standing still you are going backwards and if your players are doing the same thing, you’d be very frustrated and they aren’t going to last that long so as a coach it is important to bounce ideas off.
“I don’t want to evolve with the game, I want to force the game to evolve. If you are behind the curve you are in a bit of trouble but if you are ahead of it, you are shaping it and that is ultimately what this club has always been about whether it be on or off the field we are looking to be pioneers of the game.”
Tom Hudson – Sale Sharks
Tom Hudson's first season in charge of Sale Sharks has seen green shoots sprout up North.
A clear identity gave way to clear improvements and success on the pitch, as new names settled into an environment that is fiercely proud of its roots.
For Hudson, pride comes from how the club has banded together to go on its longest winning run during the 2026/27 season.
"What made me comfortable with the nomination was that I wouldn't be accepting it as Tom Hudson. I'd be accepting it as the leader of a crew," he said.
"We've got around 19 members of staff and 52 players who have all contributed to taking this club forward and helping build a genuine northern force in the PWR. Any recognition like this belongs to all of them."
"We changed almost everything. We changed coaches, brought in new players, challenged mindsets, changed training standards, GPS metrics and even how we measured success.
"Normally, that much change can make alignment difficult, but credit has to go to the people behind the scenes who drove that. The transformation people have seen on the pitch has come from a huge amount of work off it.
"The success this season has been built on everybody buying into the same vision."
Barney Maddison – Trailfinders Women
Barney Maddison has guided Trailfinders Women to their first Semi-Finals in the club’s history.
They did so by beating the only undefeated team remaining, Gloucester Hartpury, who they will now face in the last four.
He did so while managing a short turnaround from welcoming World Cup players back and several injuries to experienced players across the campaign.
Netting everything together has been a challenge for the coach in his second season with the club, but one that has made the success sweeter.
“To be nominated is pretty cool,” he said. “It is a reflection of what we have done this season and how the girls have gone and how the coaches have set up.
“There has been a fair bit of change over the last 12 months so I am pretty chuffed.
“It has been tough, you don’t ever really get a pre-season with your squad, which makes it quite difficult but if you look at where we were at the start of the season to where we are now, there has been a bit of a growth. It is pretty exciting.
“We are really excited, it is the first time we have been in the play-offs so we have made history for the club and we’ve got a tough test in Gloucester.
“We did the job a couple of weeks back, but it is different when they are at home.”
Dan Murphy – Gloucester Hartpury
Stepping into the head coach role at the reigning champions can be both a blessing and a curse.
Dan Murphy, who had previously served as Gloucester’s scrum coach, has taken on the challenge with aplomb, guiding his side to top spot and a 14-game unbeaten start to his time in charge.
He has evolved the Circus’ playing style, all while demanding the same from himself as he asks of his players.
Murphy said: “I like to stretch and challenge myself, I did as a player and now as a coach.
“I am always looking for new challenges, and how to grow and how to develop. I can’t ask the players to be doing that if I am not personally doing that.
“And this year has been exactly that, there has been so much learning that I have gone through, and the staff and the coaching team have gone through, and we have grown together as well as the players.
“Our motto is to be brave, I live by that, and we want the players to do that on the field.
“You can see in our game, we play a very heavy territorial game last year and kicked our way up the field potentially and I think we have added another threat in our attack in terms of how we exit.
“For me, exiting is getting the ball over the halfway line, whether it is in hand, on the floor or into touch, that is an exit to me and we have encouraged the girls to be brave and go do that.”
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