Matt Williams (born 1960) is an Australian former

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

coach. Since 2015 he has worked as a pundit for Virgin Media Television and has written for

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...

since 2011.

Playing career

Williams played from 1978 to 1992 with both Eastwood and Western Suburbs Rugby Clubs in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

and with

Swansea RFC Swansea Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union team which plays in the Super Rygbi Cymru. The club play at St Helen's Rugby and Cricket Ground in Swansea and are also known as ''The Whites,'' in reference to their home kit colours. History ...

in Wales.

Coaching

Williams started by coaching Western Suburbs U20s in Sydney, Australia in 1992. A year later he became head coach of his former club Eastwood in Sydney in 1993. Later that year he was appointed fitness and skills coach for the Emerging Wallabies' tour of Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa. In 1995 his coaching stints included New South Wales A, New South Wales Sevens, and as assistant coach for an Australian XV against England A. He was also a coaching assistant at the Wallaby World Cup camps. In addition to national coaching duties, Williams also coached the Balmain Tigers 7s team in the Coca-Cola World Sevens in Sydney, winning the Cup. In 1996 he became manager and assistant coach for the

NSW Waratahs The New South Wales Waratahs ( or ;), often referred to as the Waratahs, are an Australian professional rugby union team based in Sydney that represents the majority of New South Wales in the Super Rugby Pacific competition. The Waratahs play ...

Super Rugby campaign. For the next three years he was Head Coach for the

in Super Rugby.

Ireland

In the autumn of 1999, he acted as backs coach in

Leinster Rugby Leinster Rugby () is one of the four professional provincial club rugby union teams from the island of Ireland. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup. The team represents the Leinster Branch, one of t ...

's European Cup campaign, becoming the province's head coach in 2000. Williams also undertook the role of defensive coach for the Irish national team in 2001. Leinster won the inaugural Celtic League Final and were knocked out at the semi-final of the European Cup. Williams also was appointed Head Coach of Ireland "A" (not to be confused with the actual Irish team) in 2002-03 and won the Six Nations title with the "A" team.

Scotland

In 2003, he was appointed as the head coach of

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

but was axed in 2005 having only secured 3 wins out of 17 test matches. After his Scotland tenure, Williams returned to Australia and became head coach of West Harbour rugby club in Sydney from 2006 to 2007 before returning to Ireland to take over

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

team mid-season, after they had sacked former coach Mark McCall. Williams resigned from the post of Head Coach at Ulster Rugby in May 2009. In 2011 he was head coach of Club Narbonne Méditerranée in France. He resigned in July 2012. He then returned to Australia and in 2013 he set up the rugby programme at the Knox Sports Academy in Sydney. Williams had a brief three-month stint, advising the Timișoara Saracensclub in Romania, and he left in November 2017.

Media

Since 2007 Williams has worked in the Irish media. He has been the International Rugby guest writer with ''

'' for international matches. He has been a guest commentator on Today FM's ''Matt Coopers, Last Word'', Newstalk's ''Off the Ball'', and the Eamon Dunphy podcasts. Williams has worked on television. Working for the ABC in Australia on match analysis, then in Ireland with Setanta TV,

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso * Canal 3 Niger, a commercial television channel in Niger * Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala * Can ...

and its successor channel,

Virgin Media One Virgin Media One, also called Virgin One, is an Irish free-to-air television channel owned by Virgin Media Ireland (part of Liberty Global), operated through its subsidiary Virgin Media Television. The channel launched on 20 September 19 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Matt 1960 births Living people Australian rugby union coaches Leinster Rugby non-playing staff Scotland national rugby union team coaches Ulster Rugby non-playing staff Australian expatriate sportspeople in Ireland Australian expatriate sportspeople in Romania Australian expatriate rugby union players in Scotland Australian expatriate sportspeople in Northern Ireland Australian rugby union players Australian expatriate rugby union players in Wales Australian expatriate sportspeople in France Rugby union players from Sydney University of Sydney alumni Eastwood Rugby Club players 20th-century Australian sportsmen