Matt Williams (rugby coach)
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Matt Williams is an n rugby union coach from New South Wales. He was the first foreign head coach of the Scotland national rugby union team. He also coached New South Wales Waratahs and Leinster. He resigned from the post of head coach at Ulster Rugby in May 2009[1].
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[edit] Scotland's first foreign head coach (2003–05)
He worked for the Scottish Rugby Union full-time, and was the first foreign head coach of Scotland, from December 2003 until April 2005. His first assistant coach (forwards coach) was New Zealander Todd Blackadder and the second was Ulsterman Willie Anderson. Williams was appointed by Ian McGeechan and Jim Telfer.
[edit] Dismissals
When he took over as Scotland's head coach Williams first dismissed Alan Tait as defence coach and told Gregor Townsend among others that he had no room for him in the team. This was regarded by many in Scotland as a mistake at the time, as Townsend was then still only thirty years old.
[edit] Coaching results
[edit] As Scotland's head coach
Williams and his large team of assistants were themselves eventually dismissed by the SRU on 25 April 2005 after a disastrous record of only three wins in two years from 17 games.
The three wins were over Samoa, Japan and Italy. While the victory over Samoa in Wellington was a good one and that over a demoralised and poorly-coached Japan was by a record score (100–8), the one over Italy in the 2005 Six Nations was a poor one, Scotland retaining victory by 18–10
[edit] At Leinster
Matt Williams was appointed to the Scotland job on the back of a very successful stint at Irish province Leinster, where his uncompromising professional approach was largely responsible for turning an underachieving team into genuine Heineken Cup contenders, playing a high-paced, expansive game that was thrilling to watch. Williams also had reasonable success as coach to the Irish A international team.
Yet it has also been observed that the main reason for his undoubted success at Leinster was a very strong coaching staff.[citation needed]
