FORMER Trowbridge rugby player Dan Richmond is helping plot the route to Rugby World Cup success for Argentina.

Bath-born hooker Richmond, 35, has been working as a specialist lineout and hooking coach with the Pumas national squad, based in Leicester ahead of the tournament.

Richmond played for Trowbridge, then Bath in the early 1990s before heading to Northampton, amassing 125 appearances for the Franklin’s Gardens side and also featuring for Bedford Blues.

After hanging up his boots in 2013, he built a reputation as a coach, guiding Bedford to the National Youth Trophy in 2011 before working with Premiership clubs Sale Sharks and Worcester Warriors as well has acting in a mentoring role for young hookers around the north of England.

His work with former Worcester Warriors player and Argentina skipper Agustín Creevy helped the player’s performance improve in quality, both in the Greene King IPA Championship, as the Warriors earned promotion back to the Aviva Premiership, but also as Argentina humbled South Africa in Durban during the Rugby Championship.

Through his work with Creevy, Richmond was invited to host a week of intensive coaching seminars in Buenos Aires in January, just after the birth of his first child, Harry, with his wife Katherine, who is originally from Winsley, to help coach the next generation of Argentinian talent.

“I received an invitation from the UAR (Argentina’s Rugby Union) to come to work with coaches and help players developing basic guidelines for improved throwing technique,’’ he said.

Richmond maintained close contact with Argentina’s coaching team throughout the Rugby Championship and was invited to join the coaching team in August ahead of the World Cup where Argentina are drawn in the same pool as favourites New Zealand.