David John Hume Walder (born 7 May 1978 in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

) is a former

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 ...

footballer who is currently head coach at

Newcastle Falcons Newcastle Falcons is a rugby union team that play in Premiership Rugby, England's highest division of rugby union. The club was established in 1877 as the Gosforth Football Club. Around 1882 the club merged with the Northumberland Football Cl ...

from the 2017–18 season onwards, having been attack coach since 2015.

Early life

He was educated at

Oundle School Oundle School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) for pupils 11–18 situated in the market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire, England. The school has been governed by the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the City ...

in Northamptonshire followed by Durham University. He matriculated at

Hatfield College, Durham , motto_English = Either the first or with the first , scarf = , named_for = Thomas Hatfield , established = , senior_tutor = , master = Ann MacLarnon (2017–) , undergraduates = 1010 (2017/18) , postgradu ...

in 1997 for the Sport in the Community course, after being rejected by Hild Bede College. Having initially planned to focus on cricket, his change of college (Hatfield having a strong reputation for rugby) prompted a change of plans and he was eventually offered a professional contract with

to start when he finished his degree. During his final season as a student, 1999–2000, he was awarded a full palatinate by the university for achievements in rugby. This included: being selected to represent North East Universities for a match against a team representing the former

Orange Free State The Orange Free State ( nl, Oranje Vrijstaat; af, Oranje-Vrystaat;) was an independent Boer sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeat ...

in January, which led to a letter of congratulations from

Tim Burt Timothy Peter Burt (born 23 December 1951) is a British geographer, academic, and academic administrator. He was Master of Hatfield College, Durham and Professor of Geography at the University of Durham between 1996 and 2017. He had previously ...

; making his first appearance for the England Under 21 side against Scotland in February 1999; and just weeks later making his debut for Newcastle against

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

. He played

minor counties cricket The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

for

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...

from 1997–1999.

Career

He most recently played at

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– ...

for Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars in Japan, having signed for them from

London Wasps Wasps Rugby Football Club is a professional rugby union team. They last played in Premiership Rugby, the top division of English rugby until being suspended on 12 October 2022. On 17 October 2022 the club entered administration, resulting in r ...

at the end of the 2010–2011 season. He joined London Wasps from

in the summer of 2006, and he played a large part in his team's first win, against the Saracens. Walder signed a one-year deal to play for Air New Zealand Cup side North Harbour, but was unable to go through with the move due to injury. Whilst at Newcastle he played in the final of the 2001 Tetley's Bitter Cup, scoring the winning try against Harlequins. He also started in the 2004 final, scoring 17 points (four conversions and three penalties) as Newcastle defeated the Sale Sharks. He earned his most recent England cap against Wales in a

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

warm up match in Cardiff in August 2003. However, he missed selection for the World Cup and he stayed at home. After 5 years as head coach of Newcastle, Walder will become director of rugby in 2022–23 following the resignation of Dean Richards.

Personal

He is a supporter of Newcastle United, listing " Gazza, Peter Beardsley and Kevin Keegan as his heroes".Fotheringham, William, 'Six Nations Sandwich Provides A Feast Of Rugby',

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

26 February 2001, pA9

References

External links

Wasps profileNewcastle profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walder, Dave 1978 births Living people Alumni of Hatfield College, Durham British expatriates in Japan Cricketers from Newcastle upon Tyne Durham University RFC players England international rugby union players English cricketers English expatriate rugby union players English rugby union players Expatriate rugby union players in Japan Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars players Newcastle Falcons players Northumberland cricketers People educated at Oundle School Rugby union fly-halves Rugby union players from Newcastle upon Tyne Wasps RFC players