Richard Graham (born 5 August 1972) is a

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 Head Coach of the Australian Super Rugby franchises, 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 competitions ...

and

Western Force The Western Force is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, currently competing in Super Rugby Pacific. They previously played in Super Rugby from 2006 until they were axed from the competition in 2017. F ...

Early life

Richard Graham was born in central western Queensland (

Charleville Charleville can refer to: Australia * Charleville, Queensland, a town in Australia **Charleville railway station, Queensland France * Charleville, Marne, a commune in Marne, France *Charleville-Mézières, a commune in Ardennes, France ** ...

). He also lived in ( Miles), ( Mitchell), (

Hughenden Hughenden may refer to: *Hughenden, Queensland, a town in Australia *Hughenden, Alberta, a village in central Alberta, Canada *Hughenden Valley Hughenden Valley (formerly called Hughenden or Hitchendon) is an extensive village and civil parish in ...

), (

Longreach Longreach is a town and a locality in the Longreach Region, Queensland, Australia. It is the administrative centre of the Longreach Regional Council, which was established in 2008 as a merger of the former Longreach, Ilfracombe, and Isisford ...

) and ( Rockhampton). He attended

Marist College Ashgrove , motto_translation = Act Courageously , location = Ashgrove, Brisbane, Queensland , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = Australia Queensland , pushpin_ima ...

as a boarding student and was a talented schoolboy sportsman. Graham played 1st XI Cricket, captained 1st XV Rugby and captained the school athletics team. In his final year at school, Graham won the TAS 110m hurdles. Former Wallabies

Daniel Herbert Daniel Herbert was born 6 February 1974 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. He won 67 caps playing at centre for the Australian rugby union side since 1994. He made his test debut at the age of 20 against Ireland on 11 June 1994. He battled ...

, Graeme Bond and Pat Howard were part of Graham's 1st XV in 1990. Graham played for the undefeated Australian Schoolboys Rugby Union team that toured Europe in 1990/91 with the likes of Matt Burke,

Peter Jorgensen Peter Jorgensen (born 30 April 1973) is an Australian former rugby union and professional rugby league footballer. Background Jorgensen was educated at Newington College (1980–86) and St. Joseph's College, Hunters Hill. Playing career A r ...

Jacob Rauluni Jacob Rauluni (born 25 June 1972) is a former International Rugby Union player who comes from a family of international halfbacks. His father, Taito, played halfback for Fiji, as did his brother Mosese and his first cousin Waisale Serevi, who als ...

and Scott Bowen.

Playing career

Richard Graham played a year of Colts rugby at the

GPS Rugby GPS Rugby Club, colloquially known as GPS, is an Australian rugby union club based at Ashgrove in Brisbane that plays in the Queensland Premier Rugby competition. GPS also participates in the Brisbane Grades and Colts competitions, and in the ...

Club and was awarded the Queensland Colt of the Year in 1991. The following year saw Graham suffer a badly broken leg and subsequently a number of seasons away from the game. In 1995 he changed clubs and began playing for the Easts RFC in Brisbane winning the 1997 Brisbane premiership and also the 1999 Brisbane premiership as captain. He made his debut for the

against Hong Kong in 1998 and in 2001 played for Australia A against the touring

British and Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The Lions are a test side and most often select players who have already played for their national ...

. It was as a Rugby 7s player however that Graham was best known. He played for and captained the Australian Rugby 7s team between 1998 and 2002, his teams won 5 IRB series events and he attended 2

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

– 1998 (Kuala Lumpur) and 2002 (Manchester). In 1998 the team won a bronze medal beating Samoa in the 3rd and 4th play off.

Coaching career

Richard Graham began his professional coaching career with the

Bath RFC Bath Rugby is a professional rugby union club in Bath, Somerset, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. Founded in 1865 as Bath Football Club, since 1894 the club has played at the Recreation Ground in the ...

in the English Premiership under former Wallaby hooker Michael Foley. In his 4 seasons with the club, he also worked under John Connolly (former Wallaby coach) and Brian Ashton (former England coach). Graham then moved to the

Saracens RFC Saracens Rugby Club () are an English professional rugby union club based in North London, England. As of the current 2022–23 season, they compete in Premiership Rugby, the highest tier competition in English rugby, as well as the domestic P ...

where he worked under Alan Gaffney (former Assistant Wallaby and Ireland coach) and Eddie Jones (former Wallaby coach) before finishing as Head Coach in 2009. In June 2009 Graham joined

Robbie Deans Robert Maxwell Deans (born 4 September 1959) is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former player, currently the head coach of Japanese club Panasonic Wild Knights. He was head coach of the Australian national team between 2008 and 2013. Deans h ...

as Skills Coach of the National team. While in this role he also accepted a position of Assistant Coach to former All Blacks coach John Mitchell at the

. When Mitchell unexpectedly joined the Lions in Johannesburg in September 2010 Graham was promoted to Head Coach a year earlier than anticipated. On 16 April 2012 Graham was sacked as coach of the

after he announced he would be joining the

Reds Reds may refer to: General * Red (political adjective), supporters of Communism or socialism * Reds (January Uprising), a faction of the Polish insurrectionists during the January Uprising in 1863 * USSR (or, to a lesser extent, China) during th ...

to become Head Coach in 2013. After two games into the 2016 Super Rugby season Graham and the

parted ways.Queensland Reds coach Richard Graham sacked after back-to-back losses to start Super Rugby season
Sydney Morning Herald. 7 March 2016 In June 2016 Richard Graham was appointed Coaching Coordinator for the Georgia Rugby Union national side.

Education

Following his schooling at Marist College, Richard Graham completed a Bachelor of Education degree. He has also completed a Diploma of Financial Planning and a Graduate Certificate in Executive Leadership. He is currently completing a Master of Business Administration (MBA) through the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Graham, Richard Living people 1972 births Queensland University of Technology alumni Australian rugby union players Australian rugby union coaches Australia international rugby sevens players Rugby sevens players at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Rugby sevens players at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Western Force coaches Commonwealth Games medallists in rugby sevens Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Australia Commonwealth Games rugby sevens players of Australia