Gary Ivan Mercer (born 22 June 1966) is a New Zealand rugby league and rugby union coach and former professional rugby league footballer. A New Zealand international representative player, he has spent most of his career in Britain both playing and coaching. He is a former defence coach of Glasgow Warriors and a former coach at the SRU working in their Scottish Rugby Academy. As of March 2016, he was the head coach of Biggar RFC.

Playing career

In his long career he has represented the New Zealand national rugby league team within rugby league and New Zealand Māori sides and has played for the Leeds Rhinos, Bradford Northern, Warrington Wolves,

Castleford Tigers The Castleford Tigers are a professional rugby league club in Castleford, West Yorkshire, England, that compete in the Super League, the top-level professional rugby league club competition in the Northern Hemisphere. The club have competed i ...

( Heritage № 789) and Halifax.

Challenge Cup Final appearances

Gary Mercer played right- in Warrington's 14-36 defeat by Wigan in the

1990 Challenge Cup Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since th ...

Final during the 1989–90 season at Wembley Stadium, London on Saturday 28 April 1990, in front of a crowd of 77,729.

County Cup Final appearances

Gary Mercer played in Bradford Northern's 12-12 draw with Castleford in the

1987 Yorkshire Cup File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

Final during the 1987–88 season at Headingley, Leeds on Saturday 17 October 1987, and played left- in the 11-2 victory over Castleford in the

Final

replay Replay may refer to: * Replay (sports), a replayed match between two sport teams Technology * Game replay, a recording of a game session. * Instant replay, in motion pictures and television, a showing again of part of a film * Replay Professional, ...

during the 1987–88 season at

Elland Road Elland Road is a football stadium in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, which has been the home of Premier League club Leeds United since the club's formation in 1919. The stadium is the 14th largest football stadium in England. The g ...

, Leeds on Saturday 31 October 1987.

Regal Trophy Final appearances

Gary Mercer played left- in Warrington's 12-2 victory over Bradford Northern in the 1990–91 Regal Trophy Final during the 1990–91 season at Headingley, Leeds on Saturday 12 January 1991.

Coaching career

Rugby League

Mercer was also the player-coach at the

Halifax Blue Sox The Halifax Panthers are a professional rugby league club in Halifax, West Yorkshire, which formed in 1873. Halifax were one of the original twenty-two rugby clubs that formed the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895. They have been Rugby Leag ...

, and coach at the

, his first game in charge was on 25 April 2004, and his last game in charge was on 18 September 2004.

Rugby Union

Glasgow Warriors

Mercer switched to rugby union and became the defence coach for the Glasgow Warriors from June 2005 to June 2012 leaving the Warriors at the same time as

Sean Lineen Sean Lineen (born 25 December 1961) is a former Scotland international rugby union player. He was a former Head Coach of Glasgow Warriors from 2006 to 2012. He was a Director for the Scottish Rugby Union until December 2021. Rugby Union ca ...

. While he was there praise was heaped on his defensive coaching.

Scotland

He became the Scotland Under-20 assistant coach and worked with the Under-21 side. He then worked for the Scottish Rugby Academy.

Yorkshire Carnegie

He left the Scottish academy in August 2014 to have a brief spell running Yorkshire Carnegie.

Glasgow Hawks

Mercer was the head coach of Glasgow Hawks.

Biggar

Mercer moved on to Biggar.

FUDs

Founding member of the FUDs society, with co-members Toby Harris and Nathan Rainbow.

Family

Mercer currently lives with a son,

Zach Zack or Zach may refer to: People * Zach (surname), various people * Zack (surname), various people * Zack (personal name), lists of people and fictional characters named Zack, Zach, Zac, Zak or Zakk * Záh (gens) or Zách, a ''gens'' (clan) i ...

, a daughter, Clara, and his wife, Karen, in Glasgow, Scotland. He also has twin daughters residing in Australia. Gary has 4 brothers and 1 sister and played alongside his older brother Danny for Central Rugby League in the Bay of Plenty. Inherited two more from his most recent employment venture.

References

External links

Warrington’s World Cup heroes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mercer, Gary 1966 births Living people Bay of Plenty rugby league team players Bradford Bulls players Castleford Tigers coaches Castleford Tigers players Glasgow Warriors coaches Halifax R.L.F.C. coaches Halifax R.L.F.C. players Leeds Rhinos coaches Leeds Rhinos players New Zealand Māori rugby league players New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in England New Zealand Māori rugby league team players New Zealand national rugby league team players New Zealand rugby union coaches New Zealand rugby league coaches New Zealand rugby league players Northern Districts rugby league team players Oldham R.L.F.C. coaches Rugby league fullbacks Rugby league players from Tauranga Rugby league wingers Warrington Wolves players