Chris Cook spent 13 years in the Premiership but now he has turned his attention to transforming Zebre from also-rans into contenders.
The former England U20s scrum-half made 143 appearances for Bath over an 11-year period while he also played for Bristol, and Northampton. But he has jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire by joining Italian whipping boys Zebre Parma.
“This has been a really positive move for me,” said the 31-year-old. “Playing in the Premiership you don’t get to tour anymore. You might do three days in France at most. Getting to go away with the guys for two weeks in South Africa, what’s not to love.
“I wish I’d come here sooner. I’d only played against a handful of URC teams before so to get to do all the travelling and play at different stadiums is awesome.”
Zebre have always finished at the bottom of the URC table and its predecessor the PRO14 but Cook believes things are about to change. “I think we will definitely be more competitive,” he said. “It’s a fresh team this year. We had 21 players leave, and 21 players come in over the summer while we’ve got a new coaching set-up. We’ve drawn a line under what’s happened and hit the reset button. In terms of style, we want to play an exciting brand of rugby.
“It’s going to be a very interesting season, and a very good challenge.”
Italy have recorded several eye-catching results at U18s and U20s level with a plethora of promising youngsters filtering through into its two professional sides Benetton and Zebre. And Cook is adamant Zebre will see the benefits of Italy’s improvement at age grade level.
He said: “Over the last three years the U20s have been fantastic. They aren’t just being competitive, they are winning. Back when I played age grade rugby, it wasn’t even a consideration losing to Italy whereas now they are turning a lot of top teams over. That’s fantastic and can only benefit everyone. The more gametime we can give them on a first team level the better it is, and this will benefit Zebre.”
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