Graham Shiel (born 13 August 1970 in

Galashiels Galashiels (; , ) is a town in the Scottish Borders with a population of around 12,600. Its name is often colloquially shortened to "Gala". The town is a major commercial centre for the Borders region with extensive history in the textile in ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

) is a former skills coach of the Scotland rugby 7's team. He is now retired from playing rugby, having made 18 appearances for the

Scotland national rugby union team The Scotland national rugby union team represents the Scottish Rugby Union in men's international rugby union. The team takes part in the annual Six Nations Championship, where they are the current Doddie Weir Cup holders. They also participa ...

and once for the national sevens team. Shiel is currently the

Head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

of amateur side

Boroughmuir RFC Boroughmuir RFC is a rugby union club in the Scottish Rugby Union. The club's home ground is Meggetland, in southwest Edinburgh and the club plays in the , where they are known as the Boroughmuir Bears. Founded in 1919 and admitted to the SRU ...

, he's was previously the head coach of the Super Series (Scottish rugby union competition) semi-professional team Boroughmuir Bears but as the Series came to an end and discontinued in mid 2024 he is now the Head Coach of the club itself at National 1 level.

Rugby union Career

Amateur career

He played with

Melrose RFC Melrose Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club located in the town of Melrose, Scotland, Melrose in the Scottish Borders. The professional men's side competes in the as the "Southern Knights". The club plays at the Greenyards. History The cl ...

from 1988 for fifteen years winning five National Championship and five Border League titles with them. He played for the Australian amateur club Manly in 1992. He later joined Stewart's Melville.

Professional career

He played for

Border Reivers Border Reivers were Cattle raiding, raiders along the Anglo-Scottish border. They included both Scotland, Scottish and England, English people, and they raided the entire border country without regard to their victims' nationality.Hay, D. "E ...

- and then

Edinburgh Rugby Edinburgh Rugby (formerly Edinburgh Reivers, Edinburgh Gunners) is one of the two professional rugby union teams from Scotland. The club competes in the United Rugby Championship, along with the Glasgow Warriors, its oldest rival. Edinburgh play ...

where he was captain from 2000 to 2002.

International career

Shiel's international debut was against Ireland at Murrayfield in October 1991. His last international appearance was against New Zealand at Auckland in July 2000. He represented Scotland at the

Hong Kong Sevens The Hong Kong Sevens ( zh, t=香港國際七人欖球賽, link=no) is a rugby sevens tournament held annually in Hong Kong on a weekend in late March or early April. Considered the premier tournament on the World Rugby Sevens Series competiti ...

in 1996. Shiel was also capped by the

Barbarians A barbarian is a person or tribe of people that is perceived to be primitive, savage and warlike. Many cultures have referred to other cultures as barbarians, sometimes out of misunderstanding and sometimes out of prejudice. A "barbarian" may ...

Coaching career

He first took on a coaching role while still a player at Stewart's Melville. In 2006 he became academy manager at

. In October 2010 he was named as Scotland’s seven’s coach. In 2012 was moved to sevens skills coach.

Outside of rugby

He is a qualified stonemason.

References

External links

profile
at Scottish Rugby 1970 births Living people Barbarian F.C. players Border Reivers players Edinburgh Rugby players Male rugby sevens players Melrose RFC players Rugby union centres Rugby union players from Galashiels Scotland international rugby sevens players Scotland international rugby union players Scottish rugby union players Stewart's Melville RFC players 1991 Rugby World Cup players 1995 Rugby World Cup players Manly RUFC players Scottish rugby union coaches Scottish expatriate rugby union players in Australia {{Scotland-rugbyunion-bio-1970s-stub