Christopher Malone (born 8 January 1978 in Sydney) is an Australian

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 a former professional player. Malone is currently an assistant coach with the

NSW Waratahs The New South Wales Waratahs ( or ;), referred to as the Waratahs, are an Australian professional rugby union team representing the majority of New South Wales in the Super Rugby competition. The Riverina and other southern parts of the sta ...

. He was previously head coach of Sydney University and the Sydney Stars in Australia's

National Rugby Championship The National Rugby Championship, known as NRC, was an Australian rugby union competition. It was contested by eight teams, seven from Australia and one from Fiji. The tournament ran from 2014 until 2019 before being disbanded in 2020 following t ...

. Malone began his rugby career as a

fly-half In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16– ...

in Sydney's

Shute Shield The Shute Shield is a semi-professional rugby union competition in Sydney, Australia. It is the premier club competition in New South Wales. The Shute Shield is awarded to the winning team from the Sydney premiership grand final held at the end ...

competition and played in the

English Premiership The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

for ten years.

Family and early life

Chris Malone lived his early life in the small town of

Coolah, New South Wales Coolah is a town in the central western part of New South Wales, Australia in Warrumbungle Shire. At the 2016 census, Coolah had a population of 1,290. Material was copied from this source, which is available under Creative Commons Attribution ...

. He attended St. Stanislaus' College in Bathurst from 1990–95.

Rugby career

In Sydney, Malone started playing for the Manly club. He was selected for the Australian Under 19 and

Under 21 Under may refer to: * "Under" (Alex Hepburn song), 2013 * "Under" (Pleasure P song), 2009 *Bülent Ünder (born 1949), Turkish footballer *Cengiz Ünder (born 1997), Turkish footballer *Marie Under (1883–1980), Estonian poet * Under (restaurant) ...

representative teams. In 1999 he joined the Sydney University club as a 21-year-old and played 1st Grade from 1999 to 2001, captaining the club to their first premiership in 29 years in 2001. Malone went to England to play for

Exeter Chiefs Exeter Chiefs (officially Exeter Rugby Club) is an English professional rugby union club based in Exeter, Devon. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1871 and since 2006 has played its home m ...

in the Championship for the 2001–02 season. He then played for five seasons at Bath, including a brief stint on loan to

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 ...

. He moved to Hampton in London's south-west in 2007 for two seasons with Harlequins, and two seasons with

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club which competes in the Premiership, the top division of English rugby union. The club has also competed in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, the European Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup. While ...

. Malone was Vice-Chairman of the Rugby Players' Association, and the players' representative for London Irish during his two seasons at the club.

Coaching

Malone returned to Australia in 2011 after retiring from playing and was appointed the high performance coach of Sydney University before assuming the head coach position for the 2013 season. In 2014 he was named as the head coach of the Sydney Stars team, formed as a joint venture between Sydney University and Balmain Rugby Club, for the inaugural season of Australia's

References

External links

*
Club Statistics
on It's Rugby * {{DEFAULTSORT:Malone, Chris 1978 births Living people Rugby union players from Sydney Australian rugby union players Rugby union fly-halves Bath Rugby players Bristol Bears players Exeter Chiefs players Harlequin F.C. players London Irish players Barbarian F.C. players