Chris Whitaker (born 19 October 1974) 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 international player. he is head coach of the Sydney Rays in 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 ...

, and the interim head coach of Super Rugby side the New South Wales Waratahs, Whitaker began his professional playing career in 1997 as a scrum-half for the Waratahs, where he remained for ten seasons. He also played for the Wallabies, but his Test career there was constrained for many years by the incumbent scrum-half and Australian captain,

George Gregan George Musarurwa Gregan AM (born 19 April 1973) is a retired Australian rugby union player, and is currently Australia's most capped international player. Gregan was born in Lusaka, Zambia. He played Super 12 (now Super Rugby) for the Brumbies ...

. As such, he got minimal international game time but was in the match-day squad for many a year. He captained the Wallabies in a World Cup Match against Namibia in Adelaide in 2003. In 2006 Whitaker moved to Ireland where he played four seasons for

Leinster Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of ...

before hanging up the boots and taking up coaching.

Early life and career

Whitaker was born in Sydney and started playing rugby at

Sydney Boys High School , motto_translation = With Truth and Courage , established = , location = Cleveland Street, Moore Park, Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , pu ...

, where he graduated in 1992. He played his club rugby at Randwick.

Rugby career

Whitaker joined Super Rugby side the

NSW Waratahs The New South Wales Waratahs ( or ;), referred to as the Waratahs, are an Australian professional rugby union team representing the majority of New South Wales in the Super Rugby competition. The Riverina and other southern parts of the sta ...

in 1997, and gained his first Australian cap the next year. He played a total of 31 games for Australia and scored 10 points. Whitaker left the Waratahs in 2006, and joined Leinster Rugby in Ireland. He won the

Celtic League The Celtic League is a pan-Celtic organisation, founded in 1961, that aims to promote modern Celtic identity and culture in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man – referred to as the Celtic nations; it places part ...

in 2008 with Leinster before winning the Heineken Cup as vice-captain with the side in May, 2009. The final was, in fact, his last professional game before retirement.

Coaching

Whitaker began his coaching career as an assistant with Leinster before moving to France with his wife and three daughters in 2012 to become the defence coach under

Michael Cheika Michael Cheika (born 4 March 1967) is an Australian rugby union and rugby league coach, and former rugby union player. He is currently head coach of Argentina in rugby union and Lebanon in rugby league. Cheika was the coach of the Australia r ...

for Stade Français, where he remained for two seasons. He joined Pro D2 club

RC Narbonne R&C, RC, R/C, Rc, or rc may refer to: Science and technology Computing * rc, the default Command line interface in Version 10 Unix and Plan 9 from Bell Labs * .rc (for "run commands"), a filename extension for configuration files in UNIX-like ...

as assistant coach under Justin Harrison in 2013. Whitaker was signed to coach

Montauban Montauban (, ; oc, Montalban ) is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department, region of Occitania, Southern France. It is the capital of the department and lies north of Toulouse. Montauban is the most populated town in Tarn-et-Garonne, ...

in 2016. After a two-year stint there he left the co-head coach role at Montauban and returned to Australia. Whitaker took on the backs coaching role under Daryl Gibson at the Waratahs ahead of the 2019 Super Rugby season. He was also appointed head coach of the Sydney Rays for the 2018 NRC season. Whitaker was appointed as NSW Waratahs interim head coach alongside Jason Gilmore on 28 March 2021 after the sacking of head coach Rob Penney.

References

External links

* *
Waratahs profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitaker, Chris 1974 births Living people Australian rugby union coaches Australian rugby union players Australian rugby union captains Australia international rugby union players New South Wales Waratahs players Rugby union scrum-halves Leinster Rugby players People educated at Sydney Boys High School Rugby union players from Sydney