Julian Huxley (born 3 August 1979) is an Australian

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 ...

professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

. In 2008 he had established himself in the

Wallabies 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 so ...

and was named Australian Rookie of the Year. In 2011 he played for the

Melbourne Rebels The Melbourne Rebels is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Melbourne. They made their debut in SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011. They were the first privately owned professional rugby union team in Australia, until 2017 ...

in the

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 ...

competition.

Early life

Huxley played for a Lindfield club in his youth, and was educated at the St Ives prep school of

Sydney Grammar School (Praise be to God) , established = , type = Independent, day school , gender = Boys , religious_affiliation = None , slogan = , headmaster = R. B. Malpass , founder = Laurence Hynes Halloran , chairman = ...

and

The King's School, Sydney , motto_translation = "Bravely and Faithfully" , streetaddress = 87–129 Pennant Hills Road , city = North Parramatta, Sydney , state = New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinat ...

and went on to play for the Gordon and Sydney University clubs. Huxley has previously appeared for the under-19, under-21 and 'A' Australia sides, he also played for the

Australian sevens The Australia Sevens is an international rugby sevens tournament that was first played in 1986. Currently hosted as the Sydney Sevens, the event is part of the World Rugby Sevens Series. The tournament was held in Brisbane, in Adelaide, and o ...

Rugby career

Huxley made his

debut for the

Queensland Reds The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team for the Australian state of Queensland that competes in the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996, they were a representative team selected from the rugby union club competition ...

in 2003. His Reds season was successful year and was awarded the

Pilecki Medal The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team for the Australian state of Queensland that competes in the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996, they were a representative team selected from the rugby union club competitions ...

to become the player of the year. At the end of 2004 he went to New Zealand to play for Northland. He returned to Super Rugby in 2005, and subsequently played every match of the season. After the Reds' 2006 season Huxley joined the

Brumbies The ACT Brumbies (known from 2005–2022 as simply the Brumbies) is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), The team competes in Super Rugby and named for the brumby, feral horses whi ...

. On 4 March 2008, the Brumbies announced Huxley had been diagnosed with a brain tumour after suffering a seizure during a match against Queensland the previous week. Huxley stopped playing immediately to undergo surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy to treat his condition. He had surgery which was successful and in March 2010, gained a medical clearance to resume playing. Huxley signed with the

in May 2010. Rebels' head coach

Rod Macqueen Roderick Ian Macqueen, AM is an Australian former rugby union coach. He coached Australia at the Rugby World Cup, and the Waratahs, Brumbies and Rebels in the Super Rugby competition. Career One of Macqueen's first major coaching positions was ...

, said, "Julian has shown great form since his return. He brings with him a fantastic attitude to life and the game we can all learn from. He is an intelligent player who will make a significant contribution to the Rebels." Huxley's reported motivation to move to

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

is to start a "new chapter" in his life. He told a ''

Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the Murdoch owned News Corp. The ''Herald S ...

'' journalist that: "Everything about Melbourne; the culture, the lifestyle, and of course the excitement around the Rebels makes this a great move for me." In an effort to regain his fitness Huxley played in just one Rebels' pre-season trial (against the Crusaders), running on with his former team mate

Stirling Mortlock Stirling Austin Mortlock AM (born 20 May, 1977) is a former Australian professional rugby union player. He has scored more than 1,000 points in Super Rugby, and nearly 500 test points for the Wallabies. Mortlock is a former Wallaby, Melbourne Re ...

. Huxley's move to Melbourne also attracted the attention of ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'' and ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

''. In July 2012 Huxley left the Melbourne Rebels. He moved to France to play Narbonne in the Rugby Pro D2 competition.

Coaching

Huxley was an assistant coach for the Sydney Rays team in the

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 2016. Later that year, he was appointed head coach of

Shute Shield The Shute Shield is a semi-professional rugby union competition in Sydney, Australia. It is the premier club competition in New South Wales. The Shute Shield is awarded to the winning team from the Sydney premiership grand final held at the end ...

club Penrith Emus for the 2017 season. After

Simon Cron Simon Cron is an Australian professional rugby union football coach. He is currently the head coach of the team that plays in the Super Rugby competition. He was appointed Force coach ahead of the 2023 Super Rugby Pacific season in March 2022. ...

took a job with 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 state ...

, the Sydney Rays promoted Huxley to the head coaching position for 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huxley, Julian 1979 births Living people Rugby union players from Sydney Australia international rugby union players ACT Brumbies players Rugby union fullbacks People educated at Sydney Grammar School People educated at The King's School, Parramatta Melbourne Rebels players Queensland Reds players Northland rugby union players Male rugby sevens players Australian expatriate rugby union players Expatriate rugby union players in New Zealand Australian rugby union players Australia international rugby sevens players