Brian "Billy" Melrose (born 9 May 1963) is an Australian professional

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

coach and former player who played as a fly-half and inside centre. He was head coach of the

Greater Sydney Rams The Greater Sydney Rams, originally known as the Western Sydney Rams, is a former rugby union team from Australia that was disbanded in 2018. The Rams won the minor premiership in the 2007 Australian Rugby Championship (ARC), and then competed ...

for the inaugural season of Australia's

National Rugby Championship The National Rugby Championship, known as NRC, was an Australian rugby union competition. It was contested by eight teams, seven from Australia and one from Fiji. The tournament ran from 2014 until 2019 before being disbanded in 2020 following t ...

in 2014.

Family and early life

Brian Melrose grew up in Baulkham Hills in Sydney, as the third of four brothers who all played first-grade rugby. His brother

Tony Melrose Tony Melrose (born 7 September 1959) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. He played in the NSWRL Premiership for Parramatta, South Sydney, Manly-Warringah and Eastern Suburbs in the ...

is a former

Wallaby A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and som ...

who also played

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

for

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

, Souths, Easts, Manly and

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Rugby career

Melrose played as a

fly-half In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16– ...

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics * Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...

in Sydney's club rugby competition for

, Western Suburbs (now West Harbour), and

Eastwood Eastwood may refer to: Places ;in Australia *Eastwood, New South Wales **Eastwood railway station **Electoral district of Eastwood *Eastwood, South Australia ;in Canada * Eastwood, Ontario *Eastwood, Edmonton, Alberta, a neighborhood ;in the Ph ...

in the 1980s and 1990s. He won the A.L. Vincent Trophy for the best and fairest player at Western Suburbs in 1994. Melrose played 240 first-grade games between 1982 and 1999, returning to his first club Parramtta as first-grade captain-coach before retiring.

Coaching career

Melrose was appointed as co-coach of the previously struggling West Harbour club in 2001, and achieved an immediate improvement with the team reaching the play-offs in both 2001 and 2002. He was named as the NSW Premier Rugby 'Coach of the Year' in 2002. Melrose was recruited by

Manly RUFC Manly Rugby Union Football Club is a rugby union club based in Manly, a suburb of Sydney. The club was formed in 1883 and competes in the New South Wales Rugby Union competitions, the Charter Hall Shute Shield. Manly, known as the Marlins, p ...

as Head Coach for the 2003 season, and again improved his team's position (from 10th in 2002) to reach the play-offs in 2003 and 2004. He undertook a coaching study tour of the UK before joining the New South Wales Waratahs as attack and kicking coach for the 2005 season. It was the Waratahs' most successful Super Rugby season, making the grand final for the first time and following that up with another finals appearance in 2006. Melrose was appointed Head Coach of the Western Sydney Rams for the inaugural

Australian Rugby Championship The Australian Rugby Championship, often abbreviated to the ARC and also known as the Mazda Australian Rugby Championship for sponsorship purposes, is a now-defunct domestic professional men's rugby union football competition in Australia, which ...

in 2007. With the youngest team in Australia, the Rams were tipped to finish in the bottom two on the ladder but instead claimed the minor premiership with a thrilling brand of rugby under Melrose. He was Head Coach of the Australia under 20s team which finished in fifth place at the

2008 IRB Junior World Championship The 2008 IRB Junior World Championship was the first annual international rugby union competition for Under 20 national teams. All players who were twenty years of age or under on 1 January 2008 were eligible for selection. This competition repla ...

s, and Head Coach of

in 2009. Melrose left for Ireland in 2010 to take up a contract as assistant coach with

Connacht Connacht ( ; ga, Connachta or ), is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms ( Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, Conmhaícne, and Del ...

in the

Pro12 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

competition. He was recruited to

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club which competes in the Premiership, the top division of English rugby union. The club has also competed in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, the European Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup. While ...

in 2011. Returning to Australia in 2013, he worked on his building business and worked with NRL club St George-Illawarra as a skills coach. The

appointed Melrose as Head Coach for the 2014 season, renewing their association with the coach that took the Western Sydney Rams to the Minor Premiership in 2007.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Melrose, Brian Living people Australian rugby union coaches Australian rugby union players Connacht Rugby non-playing staff Rugby union centres Rugby union fly-halves 1963 births