William Charles Aroyn Walker (born 19 May 1978) is a former New Zealand

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 ...

footballer. He played for

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

and

Worcester Warriors Worcester Warriors Rugby Football Club is a professional rugby union club, based in Worcester, England, that is currently in Administration (law), administration and which has been suspended and will be relegated from Premiership Rugby, the top ...

in the

Guinness Premiership Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition. The Premiership has consisted of thirteen clubs since 2021, and is the ...

. He has also played for the New Zealand Maori. Walker is currently the head coach of the

Blues Women The Blues Women's team (known as the Nib Health Funds, nib Blues Women for sponsorship reasons) is a New Zealand professional women's rugby union team based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the Super Rugby Aupiki competition. History ...

in the

Super Rugby Aupiki Super Rugby Aupiki is a professional women's rugby union club competition in New Zealand. Its inaugural season was held in March 2022. It is a steppingstone between the Farah Palmer Cup and the Black Ferns. Aupiki translates as ‘''the ascent to ...

competition.

Rugby career

Walker debuted for North Harbour in 1997. He later played for

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

in 2002 and 2003. He also played for the Highlanders from 2002 to 2003 before going abroad. Walker joined

for the start of the 2006/07 season on a 2-year contract from

World Fighting Bull World Fighting Bull were a Japanese rugby union team that played in the county's Top League Japan Rugby League One (formerly the Top League) is a rugby union competition in Japan. It is the highest level of professional rugby competition in ...

. He made 24 appearances in all competitions during his debut season, scoring 220 points. This included 2 tries against

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

. In his second season, he made 23 appearances in all competitions, scoring 96 points. He scored 2 tries against

Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers (officially Leicester Football Club) are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1880 and since 1892 plays its hom ...

and

Bourgoin Bourgoin-Jallieu (; frp, Brégon) is a commune in the Isère department in the region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in France. The city had 28,834 inhabitants in 2019 and lies 35 kilometres east-southeast of Lyon. It was formed by the merger of th ...

. On 22 May 2008, Walker signed a 2-year extension to his contract. On 13 September 2008, Walker played a key role in Gloucester's victory at The Rec. He scored 1 try, 1 conversion, 2 penalties & 1 drop-goal to help

to a 21–17 victory. On 16 May 2009, having played Nine games and scored 74 points whilst on loan to

from

, it was officially announced that Walker had signed a 2-year deal with the Warriors, after being released from his contract by the Cherry & Whites. This new deal would keep Walker at the

until 2011. During his loan spell with

Walker helped the Warriors achieve a huge derby double over local rivals

by kicking Worcester to victory both at Sixways and Kingsholm.

Coaching career

Walker was appointed as Head Coach of Auckland Storm for the 2021

Farah Palmer Cup The Farah Palmer Cup (formerly known as Women's Provincial Championship until 2016), is the highest level domestic women's rugby union competition in New Zealand and is named after the former Black Ferns captain, Farah Palmer. This contest is hel ...

season. He then coached the

in the first-ever women's

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 ...

match in New Zealand on 1 May 2021. With the announcement of the creation of the

competition by

New Zealand Rugby New Zealand Rugby (NZR) is the governing body of rugby union in New Zealand. It was founded in 1892 as the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU), 12 years after the first provincial unions in New Zealand. In 1949 it became an affiliate to t ...

, Walker was offered the position of Head Coach of the Blues Women for the inaugural season in 2022.

References

External links

Worcester Warriors profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Willie 1978 births Living people English rugby union players Gloucester Rugby players Highlanders (rugby union) players Māori All Blacks players New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in England Rugby union players from Ōpōtiki Worcester Warriors players Rugby union fly-halves People educated at Opotiki College People educated at King's College, Auckland New Zealand rugby union coaches