David Waite (born 30 May 1951) is an Australian former

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer and coach. He has also coached

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...

in the

Rugby League Tri-Nations The Rugby League Tri-Nations (known as the Gillette Tri-Nations for sponsorship reasons) was a rugby league tournament involving the top three teams in the sport: Australia, Great Britain and New Zealand and is the predecessor of today's Ru ...

Background

Waite was born in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. Waite holds a British passport, courtesy of his father being born in Leicester.

Club career

Waite was a

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facilit ...

junior and played with their President's Cup team in 1969. The following season he played with Wests Wollongong in the

Illawarra Rugby League The Illawarra Rugby League is a rugby league competition in Wollongong, NSW. It is one of the oldest rugby league competitions in Australia, founded in 1911 with five clubs (Dapto, Helensburgh, Mount Keira, Unanderra and Wollongong). The area pr ...

competition. It was whilst playing for Wests Wollongong that he first represented for Country, NSW and Australia. He spent two seasons with the

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australasia's premier rugby leag ...

in 1974 and 1975. Injury forced him into premature retirement in 1976 but in 1978 he was coaxed to make a comeback by his former coach

Warren Ryan Warren Redman Ryan (born 27 October 1941) is an Australian former professional rugby league football coach and player. He is considered one of the most influential rugby league coaches of the 20th century. Ryan also played in the NSWRFL Premie ...

and returned to the

Western Suburbs Magpies The Western Suburbs Magpies (legal name: Western Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club Ltd) are an Australian rugby league football club based in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. Formed in 1908, Wests, as they are commonly r ...

for a few games in 1978 before retiring again and taking up coaching.

Representative career

Waite was a Country and New South Wales representative in 1973 before being selected for international representation as a winger in 1973. He played in two Tests of the Ashes tour of

and two Tests against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. In 1974 he took part in two Tests in the Ashes series in Australia. He scored three tries in the Kangaroos versus Rest of The World match in early 1974 but broke his jaw that season and missed the early representative games. He returned to the Test team for the opening match of the Ashes series but was dropped following Australia's 16-11 second Test loss. Waite is named in the Australian Players Register as Kangaroo No. 447.

Coaching career

In 1984 he was appointed coach of the Australian Schoolboys team. A position as coach of

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...

under 23s followed from 1985 to 1987 and he was then

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

reserve grade coach from 1988 to 1991. Waite's first first-grade coaching job was for Newcastle, succeeding

Allan McMahon Allan McMahon (9 August 1954 – 23 May 2003), also known by the nickname of "Macca", was an Australian professional rugby league footballer and coach. He was an Australian test player and was a coach of the Canberra Raiders, Newcastle Kni ...

in 1991. He joined St George in 1996 and went on to guide them to the 1996 Grand Final against great odds and again coached St. George to the 1999 Grand Final. To Waite's surprise, in May 2000 it was announced that he would not be retained as coach for 2001. Instead, the St. George Illawarra board favoured Waite's co-coach,

Andrew Farrar Andrew Farrar is an Australian former rugby league footballer and coach. He played for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Western Suburbs, Wigan and the Illawarra Steelers. Farrar also played for New South Wales in the State of Origin on seve ...

for the position. He was reportedly offered the job of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

coach in 2000 but instead moved to Britain to work as a coaching co-ordinator in 2000 for the

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league in England, and until 1995 for the whole British Isles. The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the main league competition run by the organisati ...

. In February 2001, he was appointed head coach and technical director of the Great Britain rugby league team. Waite stepped down from this role in 2003. During 2006 he worked behind the scenes with the

Catalans Dragons The Catalans Dragons (French: ''Dragons Catalans'', Catalan: ''Dracs Catalans'') are a professional rugby league club from Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales department, France. The team competes in the Super League and are the only team from outs ...

in their inaugural season in the Super League. He returned to Australia at the end of the 2006 season. In 1995 Waite coached South Australia in the National Championship

Footnotes

External links

Britain's long Waite for success

2001 Ashes profileKangaroos beat Lions at Wilderspool
{{DEFAULTSORT:Waite, David 1951 births Living people Australia national rugby league team players Australian people of English descent Australian rugby league coaches Australian rugby league players Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks players Great Britain national rugby league team coaches Newcastle Knights coaches Place of birth missing (living people) Rugby league players from Sydney St. George Dragons coaches St. George Illawarra Dragons coaches Western Suburbs Magpies players