Tim Walsh (born 10 April 1979) is an Australian

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 ...

coach and a former professional player. He is currently head coach of the Australian women's sevens team and was previously head coach of the Australian men's sevens team. Walsh played as a

fly-half In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16� ...

for the

Queensland Reds The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team based in Brisbane for the Australian state of Queensland that competes in the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996, they were a representative team selected from the rugby union ...

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 ...

, and for several professional teams in England and Italy. He is a former

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

of the Australian men's sevens team.

Early life

Walsh was educated at the

Anglican Church Grammar School The Anglican Church Grammar School (ACGS), formerly the Church of England Grammar School and commonly referred to as Churchie, is an independent, Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican, Day school, day and boarding school for boys, located in ...

in Brisbane. He was selected for the Australian Schoolboys team in 1996, and went on to play for Australia Under-19s in 1998.

Rugby career

Walsh began his professional rugby career at the

in 1999, earning two provincial caps off the bench in the Ricoh National Championship. He represented the Australia Under-21s in 2000 and also played for Australian Universities. Walsh later returned to play

for Queensland in 2004 and 2010. In England Walsh played at

Leeds Carnegie Leeds Carnegie was a brand name used by several sports teams associated with the Carnegie School of Physical Education, now part of Leeds Beckett University Leeds Beckett University (LBU), formerly known as Leeds Metropolitan University (LM ...

in the

Guinness Premiership Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition, consisting of 10 clubs, and is the top division of the English rugby u ...

. He also spent several seasons playing in the Guinness Championship for

Worcester Warriors Worcester Warriors are a professional rugby union club based in Worcester, England. They most recently played in Premiership Rugby, the top division of English rugby union, before being suspended by the Rugby Football Union, RFU in September 2 ...

, Birmingham and Solihull R.F.C. and Newbury RFC where he was captain. He finished his career in Italy in 2012 playing for Petrarca Padova. Internationally, Walsh played for the

Australian Sevens The Australia Sevens is an international rugby sevens tournament that was first played in 1986. Currently hosted as the Sydney Sevens, the event is part of the World Rugby Sevens Series. The tournament was held in Brisbane, in Adelaide, and on ...

team for several seasons on the

Sevens World Series The SVNS, known as the HSBC SVNS for sponsorship reasons, is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB Wor ...

circuit, and captained the team.

Coaching

Walsh became head coach of the Australia women's national rugby sevens team in 2013, and qualified the team for the 2016 Olympic Sevens tournament. The women's team went on to win the gold medal, defeating New Zealand 24–17 in the final. "It's an Olympics sport and we're very successful at it." Walsh said after the medal ceremony. In September 2015, he took over as interim Head Coach of the Australia men's sevens team for their Olympic qualification campaign, following the resignation of Geraint John. After the

2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, were an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that was held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, bet ...

, he took over the head coaching position of the men's team. In 2022 he swapped roles with

John Manenti John Manenti (born 30 March 1971) is an Australian rugby union coach who is the head coach of the San Diego Legion of Major League Rugby (MLR). Manenti achieved coaching success in international rugby sevens, winning the World Rugby Sevens Serie ...

and became head coach of the Australian women's sevens team again.

References

External links

It's Rugby
stats
Australian Schools Rugby Union

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walsh, Tim 1979 births Living people Australian rugby union players Australian rugby union coaches Queensland Reds players Petrarca Rugby players Rugby union scrum-halves People educated at Anglican Church Grammar School Australia international rugby sevens players Rugby union players from Sydney North Harbour rugby union players Worcester Warriors players Leeds Tykes players Birmingham & Solihull R.F.C. players Male rugby sevens players Coaches of international rugby sevens teams Olympic coaches for Australia Australian expatriate rugby union players in Italy Australian expatriate rugby union players in England Coaches at the 2024 Summer Olympics