Matt Williams (rugby union coach)

Matt Williams (born 1960) is a Australian former rugby union coach who is best known for having led the Scotland men's national rugby union team to 14 losses in 17 games between 2003 and 2005, with a win rate of just 17.65%.^[1] Since 2015 he has worked as a pundit for Virgin Media Television and has written for The Irish Times since 2011.

Matt Williams

Birth name	Matthew Brian Williams
Date of birth	1960 (age 64–65)[citation needed]
Height	5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
Rugby union career
Coaching career Years Team 1997–1999 NSW Waratahs 2000–2003 Leinster 2003–2005 Scotland 2007–2010 Ulster 2017 Timișoara Saracens

Playing career

Williams played from 1978 to 1992 with both Eastwood and Western Suburbs Rugby Clubs in Sydney and with Swansea RFC 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.^{[citation needed]} 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 Super Rugby campaign. For the next three years he was Head Coach for the NSW Waratahs in Super Rugby.

Leinster and Ireland "A"

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

After success with Ireland A, Williams was reportedly "head hunted" by the SRU^[2] and, in 2003, he was appointed as the head coach of Scotland. Williams was only the second Australian in over a century to be appointed as a head coach in the Six Nations Championship — and the Scottish national men's team's first foreign coach.^[3]

Statistically, Williams was and remains the worst Scotland coach of the professional era by a considerable margin. Despite being able to select from a group of players which included British & Irish Lions tourists Simon Taylor, Gregor Townsend, Tom Smith, Scott Murray, and Gordon Bulloch; future Lions Chris Cusiter, Mike Blair, Ross Ford, Jason White, and Nathan Hines; and experienced players like Stuart Grimes and Jon Petrie, Williams' team won just 17.65% of their matches. Scotland won three games out of 17 under Williams' tenure, two of which came against Tier 2 nations: Japan and Samoa. A defeat of Italy in the 2005 Six Nations remains Williams' only win against Tier One opposition. Additionally, Williams controversially discarded Townsend - a celebrated figure in Scottish rugby, then aged only 30 - a week prior to the unveiling of his first national squad, despite an admission that his team lacked experienced centres.^[4]

Williams was sacked as Scotland head coach in April 2005, with the worst win percentage of any Scottish permanent head coach,^[5] a record that stands to this day.^[6] Scotland's results immediately picked up with the arrival of new coach Frank Hadden, a former schoolteacher.^[7][8][9] Williams' player-management techniques have subsequently been criticised by multiple former Scotland internationals.^[10][11]

After Scotland

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 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.^[12]

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^{[citation needed]}, 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 The Irish Times 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 and its successor channel, Virgin Media One.^[13]