Chris Whitaker (born 19 October 1974) is an Australian professional

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

coach and former international player. he is head coach of the

Sydney Rays Sydney is an Australian rugby union team that competes in the National Rugby Championship (NRC). Formerly known as Sydney Rays, the team is one of two sides from New South Wales in the competition; the other being the NSW Country Eagles. T ...

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 ...

, and the interim head coach of

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 previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

side the

New South Wales 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 state, ...

, Whitaker began his professional playing career in 1997 as a scrum-half for the Waratahs, where he remained for ten seasons. He also played for the

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...

, but his Test career there was constrained for many years by the incumbent scrum-half and Australian captain,

George Gregan George Musarurwa Gregan AM (born 19 April 1973) is a retired Australian rugby union player, and is currently Australia's most capped international player. Gregan was born in Lusaka, Zambia. He played Super 12 (now Super Rugby) for the Brumbies ...

. As such, he got minimal international game time but was in the match-day squad for many a year. He captained the Wallabies in a World Cup Match against Namibia in Adelaide in 2003. In 2006 Whitaker moved to Ireland where he played four seasons for

Leinster Leinster ( ; ga, Laighin or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, situated in the southeast and east of Ireland. The province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige. Following the 12th-century Norman invasion of Ir ...

before hanging up the boots and taking up coaching.

Early life and career

Whitaker was born in Sydney and started playing rugby at

Sydney Boys High School , motto_translation = With Truth and Courage , established = , location = Cleveland Street, Moore Park, Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , p ...

, where he graduated in 1992. He played his club rugby at Randwick.

Rugby career

Whitaker joined

side 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 stat ...

in 1997, and gained his first Australian cap the next year. He played a total of 31 games for Australia and scored 10 points. Whitaker left the Waratahs in 2006, and joined

Leinster Rugby Leinster Rugby ( ga, Rugbaí Laighean) is one of the four professional provincial rugby union teams from the island of Ireland and the most successful Irish team domestically. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby ...

in Ireland. He won the

Celtic League The Celtic League is a pan-Celtic organisation, founded in 1961, that aims to promote modern Celtic identity and culture in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man – referred to as the Celtic nations; it places par ...

in 2008 with Leinster before winning the

Heineken Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Heineken Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pre ...

as vice-captain with the side in May, 2009. The final was, in fact, his last professional game before retirement.

Coaching

Whitaker began his coaching career as an assistant with Leinster before moving to France with his wife and three daughters in 2012 to become the defence coach under

Michael Cheika Michael Cheika (born 4 March 1967) is an Australian rugby union and rugby league coach, and former rugby union player. He is currently head coach of Argentina in rugby union and Lebanon in rugby league. Cheika was the coach of the Australi ...

for

Stade Français Stade Français Paris Rugby () is a French professional rugby union club based in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The club plays in the Top 14 domestic league in France and is one of the most successful French clubs of the modern era. The ...

, where he remained for two seasons. He joined Pro D2 club

RC Narbonne R&C, RC, R/C, Rc, or rc may refer to: Science and technology Computing * rc, the default Command line interface in Version 10 Unix and Plan 9 from Bell Labs * .rc (for "run commands"), a filename extension for configuration files in UNIX-like ...

as assistant coach under

Justin Harrison Justin Harrison, born 20 April 1974 in Sydney, is a former Australian international rugby union player, who played lock forward and is currently the head of the Australian Rugby Union Players Association (RUPA) Career Discovered in 1993 by Gold ...

in 2013. Whitaker was signed to coach

Montauban Montauban (, ; oc, Montalban ) is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department, region of Occitania, Southern France. It is the capital of the department and lies north of Toulouse. Montauban is the most populated town in Tarn-et-Garonne, ...

in 2016. After a two-year stint there he left the co-head coach role at Montauban and returned to Australia. Whitaker took on the backs coaching role under

Daryl Gibson Daryl Peter Earl Gibson (born 2 March 1975) is an international rugby coach and former New Zealand rugby union footballer. He played for the Crusaders in the Super Rugby and represented his country with the All Blacks. After success as assist ...

at the Waratahs ahead of the 2019 Super Rugby season. He was also appointed head coach of the

for the 2018 NRC season. Whitaker was appointed as NSW Waratahs interim head coach alongside Jason Gilmore on 28 March 2021 after the sacking of head coach

Rob Penney Rob Penney (born 27 April 1964) is a former New Zealand rugby union player, playing at No.8 for Canterbury throughout his career. He has served in various coaching roles since 2005. He was the head coach of Australian Super Rugby side Waratahs ...

References

External links

* *
Waratahs profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitaker, Chris 1974 births Living people Australian rugby union coaches Australian rugby union players Australian rugby union captains Australia international rugby union players New South Wales Waratahs players Rugby union scrum-halves Leinster Rugby players People educated at Sydney Boys High School Rugby union players from Sydney