Geoff Townsend (born 1964) is an Australian professional
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 ...
football coach. He is currently head coach of Sydney club
Gordon RFC
Gordon Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club based on the North Shore of Sydney. The club, known as the Gordon Highlanders, plays out of Chatswood Oval and competes in the New South Wales Rugby Union grade competition.
Club information
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, and he was appointed as head coach of the
North Harbour Rays
Sydney, formerly the Sydney Rays, was an Australian rugby union team that competed in the National Rugby Championship (NRC). It was one of two sides from New South Wales that played in the final season of NRC in 2019; the other was the NSW Cou ...
for the inaugural season of 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 ...
in 2014.
[
Townsend began his professional rugby coaching career in 1997 with three undefeated seasons as co-head coach of the New South Wales Under 19 team.][ He was the co-head coach of the Manly first grade team in the ]Shute Shield
The Shute Shield, currently known as the Charter Hall 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 fro ...
in 1999 and 2000. Townsend spent several seasons in Japan – as a coaching consultant to Top League
Japan Rugby League One (), formerly known as the Top League (), is a rugby union competition in Japan. It is the highest level of professional rugby competition in the country. The Japan Rugby Football Union created the competition in 2003, by ...
team Kobelco Steelers
The Kobelco Kobe Steelers are a Japanese rugby union team owned by Kobe Steel, and based in Kobe. They were the first ever Top League champions when the League started in the 2003-2004 season. The team rebranded as Kobelco Kobe Steelers ahead of ...
in 2001, and as coach and technical advisor to Tokyo University from 2002 to 2004.[
Returning home to Australia, he was head coach of the Southern Districts first grade team in the Shute Shield from 2004 to 2006. He joined the ]Western Force
The Western Force is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, currently competing in Super Rugby, Super Rugby Pacific. They previously played in Super Rugby from 2006 until they were axed from the competitio ...
as head coach of the club's academy in 2007,[ and was assistant coach to the Force'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 has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...
team under head coach John Mitchell in 2009 and 2010.[ Following a stint as coaching consultant to ]Sydney University
The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...
,[ he joined Gordon in 2014 on a three-year deal as head coach of their Shute Shield team.][ After the launch of the National Rugby Championship, he was appointed as head coach of the North Harbour Rays team to play in the new competition.][
]
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Townsend, Geoff
Living people
Australian rugby union coaches
1964 births