Jean-Pierre Élissalde

Jean-Pierre Élissalde (born December 31, 1953 in La Rochelle) was a French rugby union player at scrum half.

Élissalde was appointed as the first foreign head coach of Japan national rugby union team in March 2005. His contract as head coach was dissolved by the Japan Rugby Football Union (JRFU) in September 2006, after Élissalde was contracted concurrent manager position with Aviron Bayonnais of France. Élissalde refused to give it up when JRFU asked to do so in order to concentrate on the Japan head coach position. JRFU dissolved head coach contract with Élissalde on September 27 2007. Élissalde's assistant coach Osamu Ota took over as caretaker manager.

Coaching experience

Élissalde has coached at Atlantique Stade Rochelais and AS Béziers Hérault.

Player

He played five times for France in 1980 and 1981.

Other

He is the father of current French scrum half Jean-Baptiste Élissalde, and his father-in-law Laurent Bidart also represented France.

External links

* [http://www.rugbyjapan.com/japan/2006/0227.htm Japan coach Jean-Pierre Élissalde named a 34 man squad] , JRFU web page
* [http://statistics.scrum.com/rugby_stats_05.asp?ID=FEL2 scrum.com entry]