Dale 'The Chief' McIntosh announces new job as club reveal 'fantastic coup'

Dale “The Chief” McIntosh is to take up the role of Director of Rugby and Head Coach at ambitious Brecon RFC from this summer. The Pontypridd legend is stepping down from Merthyr RFC at the end of this season after six highly successful years at the coaching helm. You can read all about his reasons for leaving here.

He will then turn his attention to his latest venture with National League Division 1 East side Brecon who are looking for him to guide them into the Championship. The former Welsh international, now 52, has signed a three-year deal with the club.

He will be joined by his long-time coaching assistant Gavin Dacey and will take up the reins on July 1. McIntosh is the latest high-profile appointment by the club, who previously had another ex-Wales back row man and real character at the helm in Andy Powell.

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Club director Phil Buck said: “This is a fantastic coup for us. Bringing one of the best coaches in Wales to Brecon will send out a message that we mean to successfully compete at the highest possible level. All of our stakeholders are tremendously excited about the future.”

Buck, the chairman of club sponsor Sunnybarn Investments Ltd, explained how the eye-catching recruitment of McIntosh came about: "After Andy left for family reasons and moved to Nottingham, we promoted his defence coach Matthew Lewis, who has been with the club for a number of years. Matthew said to the board a month ago that the step up had been too big for him.

“Our chairman got a call from somebody at Merthyr to alert us that Dale was on his way out. We had two meetings with Dale and were massively impressed with him as a man. He is a great guy