Matt Williams (rugby coach)

Matt Williams (born 1960) is an Australian rugby union coach who has coached in Australia, Ireland, and other parts of Europe. Today he is a media pundit speaking on radio and television.

Matt Williams

Birth name	Matthew Brian Williams
Date of birth	1960 (age 59–60)
Height	5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
Rugby union career
Teams coached Years Team 1997–1999 2000–2003 2003–2005 2007–2010 2017 NSW Waratahs Leinster Scotland Ulster Timișoara Saracens

Playing career

Williams played from 1978 to 1992 with both Eastwood and Western Suburbs Rugby Clubs in Sydney, plus one season with Swansea in Wales.

Coaching

Williams started in coaching Western Suburbs U 20s in Sydney, Australia in 1992. A year later he became head coach of his former club Eastwood in Sydney in 1993, immediately taking them to the semi finals in both 1993 and 1994. A major improvement from their lowly position when he arrived. Later that year he gained representative recognition when he was appointed fitness and skills coach for the Emerging Wallabies' tour of Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa.

In 1995 his coaching stints included New South Wales A, New South Wales Sevens, and as assistant coach for an Australian XV against England A. He was also a coaching assistant at the Wallaby World Cup camps.

He also coached the Balmain Tigers 7s team in the Coca-Cola World Sevens in Sydney, winning the Cup. Williams, a lifelong "Balmain Tigers man" said it was "one of the best experiences of his life."

In 1996 he became manager and assistant coach for the NSW Waratahs Super 12 campaign. For the next three years he was Head Coach for the NSW Waratahs.

Williams was instrumental in mentoring and coaching such great players as Chris Whitaker, David Campese, Matt Burke, Tiaan Strauss, Phil Kearns and Jason Little.

Ireland

In the autumn of 1999 he acted as backs coach in Leinster Rugby's European Cup campaign, a prelude to becoming the province's head coach in 2000. Williams also undertook the role of defensive coach for the Irish national team in 2001. He was the first Australian Super 12 Coach to move to Europe.[1]

Williams' said that in the three years at Leinster he "was part of a great group of men" who rose through the European rankings from thirty five to second. Leinster won the inaugural Celtic League Final and were semi-finalists of the European Cup.

Williams coached the former British and Irish Lions Captain Brian O'Driscoll, as well as Gordon D'Arcy, Shane Horgan, Malcolm O'Kelly and Denis Hickie.

Williams also was appointed Head Coach of Ireland "A" in 2002-03 and won the Six Nations title with the "A" team. This led to him being "head hunted" and appointed Head Coach of Scotland. This unique challenge saw Williams as only the second Australian in over a century to be appointed as a head coach in the Six Nations Championship and the first foreign head coach of the Scotland national rugby union team, holding the position from December 2003 to April 2005.[2]

He returned to Australia and became head coach of West Harbour rugby club in Sydney from 2006 to 2007 before returning to Ireland to take over a very troubled Ulster team mid season, after they had sacked former coach Mark McCall. Ulster were last in the Magners League and in danger of missing out on the ERC. Williams got Ulster off the bottom of the ladder and into the next European season.

While enjoying the role, living away from his young family proved too much and he resigned from the post of Head Coach at Ulster Rugby in May 2009.[3]

In 2010 he led a group of Australian businessmen in taking over the famous Club Narbonne Méditerranée, in France. Williams held three roles within the club. Director Sportif, Head Coach and General Manager. After eighteen months Williams was in deep disagreement with Australian owners, whom he felt were not taking the club in the direction that was best for the club's future. He resigned in July 2012. Williams has since been proven correct in his beliefs, as Narbonne have had several horror years, culminating with the club being relegated to Federal 1 (French 3rd Division) and the Australians losing control of the club.

He then returned to Australia and in 2013 he set up the rugby programme at the Knox Sports Academy in Sydney. The academy results progressed quickly under his coaching, resulting in Knox winning the CAS in 2015 and 2016. The programme also produced several Australian Schoolboy players and Connor Watson who was contracted by the Sydney Roosters and now is playing with the Newcastle Knights in the NRL and Lachlan Swinton who is contracted with the NSW Waratahs in Super rugby.

Williams had a brief three-month stint, working with Timișoara Saracens in Romania, however the club was paralysed with financial difficulties and he left in November 2017, with the club leading their pool of the EPRC.

Media

Since 2007 Williams has worked extensively in the Irish media. He is a writer with The Irish Times for all International matches. He is a guest commentator on Today FM's Matt Coopers, Last Word, Newstalk's Off the Ball, and the Second Captains podcasts.

He has worked on Irish television with TV3 and its successor channel, Virgin Media One.[4]

Coaching statistics: Scotland (2003–05)

International matches as Head Coach

Matches (2003–2005)
Matches	Date	Opposition	Venue	Score (Sco.–Opponent)	Competition	Captain
2004
1	14 February	Wales	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff	10–23	Six Nations	Chris Paterson
2	21 February	England	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	13–35
3	6 March	Italy	Stadio Flaminio, Rome	14–20
4	21 March	France	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	0–31
5	27 March	Ireland	Lansdowne Road, Dublin	16–37
6	4 June	Samoa	Westpac Stadium, Wellington	38–3	Summer Tour	Chris Paterson
7	13 June	Australia	Docklands Stadium, Melbourne	15–35		Scott Murray
8	19 June		Stadium Australia, Sydney	13–34
9	6 November		Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	14–31	Autumn Internationals	Gordon Bulloch
10	13 November	Japan	McDiarmid Park, Perth	100–8
11	20 November	Australia	Hampden Park, Glasgow	17–31
12	27 November	South Africa	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	10–45
2005
13	5 February	France	Stade de France, Paris	9–16	Six Nations	Gordon Bulloch
14	12 February	Ireland	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	13–40
15	26 February	Italy	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	18–10
16	13 March	Wales	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	22–46
17	19 March	England	Twickenham Stadium, London	22–43

Record by country

Opponent	Played	Won	Drew	Lost	Win %	For	Against
Australia	4	0	0	4	000	59	131
England	2	0	0	2	000	35	78
France	2	0	0	2	000	9	47
Ireland	2	0	0	2	000	29	77
Italy	2	1	0	1	050	32	30
Japan	1	1	0	0	100	100	8
Samoa	1	1	0	0	100	38	3
South Africa	1	0	0	1	000	10	45
Wales	2	0	0	2	000	32	66
TOTAL	17	3	0	14	018	344	485

Notes

1. "Matt Williams – Personally Speaking Bureau". Retrieved 23 May 2015.
3. Williams resigns as Ulster coach BBC.co.uk, 20 May 2009
4. http://punditarena.com/rugby/smcmahon/matt-williams-munster-will-be-way-too-strong-for-gloucester/

Preceded by Ian McGeechan	Scotland national rugby union team coach 2003–2005	Succeeded by Frank Hadden