Clark Laidlaw (born 16 July 1977) is currently the head coach of the New Zealand national rugby sevens team. Laidlaw was appointed as All Blacks Sevens Head Coach in 2017.

Biography

Laidlaw is the son of former British & Irish Lions and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

international rugby union player

Roy Laidlaw Roy James Laidlaw (born 5 October 1953) is a former Scotland international rugby union player.Bath, pp145, 146 Rugby Union career Amateur career Much of his domestic rugby was played with Jed-Forest RFC, who were in the Scottish Second Divi ...

. His cousin,

Greig Laidlaw Greig Laidlaw (born 12 October 1985) is a Scotland, Scottish professional rugby union player. He plays as a Scrum-half (rugby union), scrum-half and as a Fly-half (rugby union), fly-half for NTT Communications Shining Arcs, Shining Arcs. Laidlaw ...

, also represented the British & Irish Lions and

. He represented Scotland internationally in sevens and moved to New Zealand in 2008. Coaching Career Laidlaw became the Skills Coach for

Taranaki Taranaki is a region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano of Mount Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the city of New Plymouth. The New Plymouth Dist ...

in 2010 then became the Skills Coach and Video Analyst with the New Zealand sevens team under Sir Gordon Tietjens from 2010 to 2012. He made the move back to the 15-aside game, as the Assistant Coach of the Hurricanes from 2013 to 2015. He was also Assistant Coach of the

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 2018, a year after becoming Head Coach of the All Blacks Sevens, New Zealand won gold at the

2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that were held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, bet ...

and the

2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens The 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens was the seventh edition of the Rugby World Cup Sevens. Organised by World Rugby, it was held at AT&T Park, now known as Oracle Park, in San Francisco, United States. A total of 84 matches were played over three da ...

. In 2020, Laidlaw guided the All Blacks Sevens to win the

World Rugby Sevens Series The World Rugby Men's Sevens Series is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World Sevens Series, the com ...

and in 2021, a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laidlaw, Clark 1977 births Living people Scotland international rugby sevens players British rugby union coaches Scottish rugby union coaches Olympic coaches for Great Britain New Zealand national rugby sevens team coaches Coaches of international rugby sevens teams