Matthew Hawkins (born 30 March 1983) is a South African born, former

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

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 ...

player and former coach of the United States sevens team.

Playing career

Hawkins played loose forward for the Old Mission Beach Athletic Club when he first arrived in the U.S., and helped the team win the 2006 national Super League title. In 2007 Hawkins was selected to the

United States national rugby sevens team The United States national rugby sevens team competes in international rugby sevens competitions. The national sevens team is organized by USA Rugby, and the team has been led by Head Coach Mike Friday since 2014. The main competition the team ...

pool. He made his first appearance for the USA Eagles at the 2008 New Zealand and USA stops of 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 ...

. Hawkins' achievements on the Sevens circuit include the team making the cup semi-finals in the

2009 USA Sevens The 2009 USA Sevens competition took place on February 14 and 15 at Petco Park in San Diego, California. It was the fourth Cup trophy in the 2008-09 IRB Sevens World Series. The USA Sevens is played annually as part of the IRB Sevens World Serie ...

and reaching the final of the

2010 Adelaide Sevens The 2010 Adelaide Sevens, promoted as the International Rugby Sevens Adelaide 2010, was a rugby sevens tournament that was part of the IRB Sevens World Series in the 2009–10 season. It was the Australian Sevens leg of the series, held between ...

. Hawkins captained the sevens team in the 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 seasons. He was at the time of his retirement among the most capped Sevens Eagles of all time. In fifteens, in 2010 he was selected to the USA 15's

Churchill Cup The Churchill Cup was an annual rugby union tournament, held in June, contested by representative men's (and formerly women's) teams from Canada, England, the United States, and other invited teams (originally one and later three) from a wide arr ...

squad and won his first cap against Russia. National Guard sponsorship of USA Rugby (3309783844)

Coaching career

Hawkins is a coach at Serevi Rugby. Hawkins has devoted his time outside of playing rugby to the development of rugby with in the US. Hawkins has been involved with youth rugby and as a coach of many different levels of rugby for many years. Hawkins is dedicated to developing talent at the youth rugby level and Collegiate level in America. Hawkins has been quoted as saying that his ultimate goal is to help the USA Men's and Women's Sevens Team reach gold at the Olympic Games. Hawkins started coaching the Belmont Sevens team with James Walker in 2009 after sustaining a major injury that put him out of playing for many months. That year he coached Belmont to claim their first National Sevens Title. In 2010 Hawkins again stepped in to coach the Belmont Sevens team and he played. That year Belmont qualified both their A and B side to the National Sevens Championships. That year Belmont fell at the last hurdle, finishing second. In 2011 Hawkins returned again to just coach the Belmont Shore Sevens team and they went on to win the National Championships for a second time in three years. Hawkins has been involved with youth rugby in the States, namely the Coastal Dragons Youth Rugby Team which calls Encinitas its home base. The Coastal Dragons are a youth rugby program that has 150 registered members and is constantly growing and is spreading the game of Rugby. Hawkins also contracted at two high school rugby teams, Torrey Pines High School in San Diego, CA and La Costa Canyon High School in San Diego, CA. Although these two schools are big rivals, he helped out at both ends. On 1 August 2013,

USA Rugby USA Rugby (officially the United States of America Rugby Football Union, Ltd.) is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States. Its role is to achieve and maintain “high levels of quality in all aspects of rugb ...

announced that Hawkins would take over as head coach of the Men's Sevens National Team, after

Alexander Magleby Alexander Magleby (born February 19, 1978) is the CEO of the professional rugby union team, The New England Free Jacks. He is a former professional rugby union coach, and former United States national team player and captain. Playing career Mag ...

's decision to step down. The US fared poorly under Hawkins, however, finishing a disappointing 13th on the World Series, and Hawkins was removed at the end of the 2013–14 season.

References

External links

Player Profile eaglesxv.com

Player Profile USA Rugby
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawkins, Matt 1983 births Living people American rugby union coaches American rugby union players United States international rugby union players Alumni of Maritzburg College United States international rugby sevens players United States national rugby sevens team coaches