Chris Boyd (born 21 July 1958 in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

) is a New Zealand

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 its m ...

coach, who is currently the Director of Rugby at

English Premiership The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

team

Northampton Saints Northampton Saints (officially Northampton Rugby Football Club) is a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. They were formed in 1880 as "Northampton St. James", ...

. He has previously coached at

, the New Zealand under-20 National Team, and

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

franchise the

Hurricanes A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

Coaching career

Boyd's first coaching role was as coach of Tawa Rugby Club, where he spent nine years from 1989 to 1998. In that year he took over as Wellington's second XV coach, becoming assistant coach to the provincial side, the Wellington Lions, in 2003. From 2006 to 2008 he was assistant coach at the

Sharks Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimorp ...

franchise. He then worked at the International Rugby Academy of New Zealand as a coaching services advisor, and was defensive coach for the Tongan team at the

2011 Rugby World Cup The 2011 Rugby World Cup was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japan and South Af ...

, with Tonga famously defeating eventual finalists

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14–19 in the pool stages.

Wellington Lions

Boyd was appointed as

Wellington Lions The Wellington Rugby Football Union (known as the Wellington Lions for competition reasons) are a New Zealand governing body of rugby union in the New Zealand province of Wellington Region. The main stadium is Sky Stadium (formerly named West ...

coach in 2011,"Boyd named as new Wellington Lions coach
" Television New Zealand, 3 November 2011. Retrieved 23 February 2013. and took over as head coach of the national under-20 team in 2012, a position he vacated until 2014. During his tenure as Wellington head coach, he steered his team to the 2013

ITM Cup ITM may stand for: Education * ITM Global School, an English medium co-educational day school in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, India * ITM Law School, one of the professional graduate schools of ITM University * ITM-IFM, Mumbai, India * Institut Tekn ...

final, losing out 29–13 to

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

, with the victors in turn securing their sixth ITM Cup in a row.

Hurricanes

In the 2015 season Boyd became the head coach of the

Super Rugby franchise along with

John Plumtree John Plumtree is a professional rugby union coach and former first class provincial rugby player. He was previously the head coach for the Hurricanes and the , which competes in the Super Rugby and Currie Cup competitions. As a player Plumtree ...

as assistant coach. On 4 July 2015, Boyd guided his Hurricanes side all the way to the Super Rugby final, losing out 21–14 to eventual winners and fellow New Zealand franchise, . The following season he would go one step further and win the

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

Super Rugby final, defeating the

Lions The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adult ...

20–3 on 6 August 2016. Upon leaving the Hurricanes, Boyd had become the most successful coach in the franchise's history to date, winning the Super Rugby New Zealand Conference twice, whilst also winning the competition in its entirety in 2016, having finished runner-up the year before.

Northampton Saints

On 29 January 2018, it was announced that Boyd would become Director of Rugby at

as of August 2018. Boyd's inaugural season at the club resulted in his first piece of silverware on 17 March 2019, by defeating Saracens 23–9 in the Premiership Rugby Cup final, in front of a full-house

Franklin's Gardens Franklin's Gardens (currently known for sponsorship purposes as cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens) is a purpose-built rugby stadium in Northampton, England. It is the home stadium of Northampton Saints. The stadium holds 15,249 people. The fou ...

Stadium. On 18 May 2019, it was confirmed that Boyd's Northampton Saints finished in the all-important 4th place, and would go on to face the

Exeter Chiefs Exeter Chiefs (officially Exeter Rugby Club) is an England, English professional rugby union club based in Exeter, Devon. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1871 and since 2006 has played i ...

in the

Premiership Rugby Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...

play-off system. However, they were defeated 42–12 by the Exeter Chiefs at

Sandy Park Sandy Park is a rugby union stadium and conference and banqueting centre in Exeter, England. It is the home ground of Exeter Chiefs, who from the 2010–11 season have been playing in the Gallagher Premiership, the top flight of the English rug ...

. He will leave Northampton following the conclusion of the 2021–22 season.

Coaching style

Boyd is renowned for his sides playing an attacking brand of rugby, proven statistically by his Hurricanes scoring 97 tries across the 2017 Super Rugby season. Throughout the course of the

2018–19 Premiership Rugby The 2018–19 Gallagher Premiership was the 32nd season of the top flight English domestic rugby union competition and the first one to be sponsored by Gallagher. The reigning champions entering the season were Saracens, who had claimed their fo ...

season, his

side steadily progressed, most notably with improvements in the offloading and player support game. It is also recorded that he has remarkable communication with his players.

Honours

As a coach

Wellington * ITM Cup runner-up:

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

Hurricanes * New Zealand Conference Champions:

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

* Super Rugby Championship Runner-up:

* Super Rugby Championship:

Northampton Saints * Premiership Rugby Cup: 2018–19

References

External links

*https://www.northamptonsaints.co.uk/person/chris-boyd {{DEFAULTSORT:Boyd, Chris Living people 1958 births Rugby union players from Wellington City New Zealand rugby union coaches