Bryan Williams (rugby player)

Bryan Williams

Player information
Full name	Bryan George Williams
birthday	October 3, 1950
place of birth	Auckland , New Zealand
size	179 cm
Nickname	Beegee
society
society	Career ended
position	Outside three quarters Inside three quarters goalkeeper
Clubs as active
Years	society	Games (points)
1968-1983	Ponsonby RFC
province
province	Career ended
position	Outside three quarters Inside three quarters goalkeeper
Provinces as active
Years	province	Games (points)
1968–1980 / 82	Auckland RFU	132
National team
Years	National team	Games (points)
1970-1988	New Zealand	38 (68)
Coaching stations
Years	Association / Province / Franchise
1975–1977 1978–1979 / 1981–1983 1984–1985 1987–1991 1991–1995 1996–1999 2000–2001 2001–2003 Since 2001	Ponsonby RFC (player assistant coach) Ponsonby RFC (assistant coach) Auckland B (assistant coach) Auckland RFU (assistant coach) Samoa (assistant coach) Samoa (head coach) Hurricanes (assistant coach) Auckland B (Assistant Trainer) Ponsonby RFC (Sports Director)

Sir Bryan George Williams , KNZM , MBE (born October 3, 1950 in Auckland , New Zealand ) is a Samoan , former New Zealand rugby union player on the position of outer three quarters , inner three quarters as well as goalkeeper , rugby coach and rugby official.

He has been President of the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) since 2011 . Previously, he served as one of its vice-presidents for two years. He was also the club president of the Ponsonby RFC, of ​​which he is a member for life.

His sons Gavin Williams and Paul Williams are professional rugby union players.

Player career

Williams went to school in Auckland at Mount Albert Grammar School , where he played in their first rugby team from 1965 to 1967, having previously played rugby league . After leaving school, he joined the Auckland rugby club Ponsonby RFC in 1968 and in the same year played games for the U-21 national team of the Auckland RFU . In 1969 he made his debut in the first team of the provincial association.

The following year he was appointed to the squad of the New Zealand national team (All Blacks) for the South Africa tour in 1970. There he made his breakthrough on an international level, although he lost three of the four internationals against the South African national team (Springboks) with the All Blacks , as he was able to achieve 14 attempts in his 13 missions , including one each in the first and last international match against the Springboks . Williams and the Māori-born Buff Milner , Blair Furlong and Sid Going were also the first Polynesians allowed to play rugby for New Zealand in South Africa after the South African apartheid government had them declared honorary whites under pressure from the NZRU . Previously, the New Zealand Rugby Association tolerated the racist policies of the South Africans until 1966, which prohibited non-white players from visiting teams from playing with whites rugby in South Africa.

In 1971 he lost with the All Blacks the international series against the British and Irish Lions, who are touring New Zealand, due to two defeats, a win and a draw. Williams played in three of the four internationals. He then won the Ranfurly Shield against the Canterbury RFU in the same year with Auckland . They were able to successfully defend it once before losing it again to the North Auckland RFU .

In 1972, 1974 and 1978 he successfully defended the Bledisloe Cup with New Zealand against the Australian national team (Wallabies). Furthermore, he won back with Auckland in 1972 from North Auckland the Ranfurly Shield, which, however, was lost again to Canterbury immediately after the first challenge game, and won this again in 1974 against the Wellington RFU . This time Auckland successfully defended the Shield a total of ten times until 1976.

Williams toured South Africa again with the All Blacks in 1976, where they lost the international series against the Springboks again (three losses and one win). For this he won the international series with the national team in 1977 against the British and Irish Lions touring New Zealand and was able to win a Grand Slam with her for the first time in the history of the All Blacks on their European tour the following year .

1979 followed another win of the Ranfurly Shields with Auckland against North Auckland. With his province he successfully defended it six times until 1980. After he had not been nominated for the national team since 1978, he temporarily resigned from active rugby in 1981. However, he played again in 1982 for one season with Auckland in the National Provincial Championship (NPC) and was with the team for the first time in their history of New Zealand rugby champions, as they won the NPC. In 1983 he finally ended his playing career.

Coaching career

After his active rugby career, he coached the first team of the Ponsonby RFC from 1981 to 1984 as assistant coach to Maurice Trapp and the second team of the Auckland RFU from 1984 to 1985. Williams had previously been player assistant coach from 1975 to 1977 and assistant coach at Ponsonby RFC from 1978 to 1979. From 1987 to 1991 he coached the first team of the Auckland RFU as Trapps assistant coach. They won with the province from 1987 to 1990 four times in a row the New Zealand rugby championship and continuously defended the Ranfurly Shield.

From 1991 Williams worked as a technical consultant for the Samoan Rugby Federation and as an assistant coach for its national team, with which he won the Pacific Tri-Nations in 1991, 1992 and 1993 . He also met with her respectively to the quarter-finals of the 1991 Rugby World Cup and 1995 Rugby World Cup before. From 1996 to 1999 he was the national coach of the Samoan national team. With her he won the Pacific Tri-Nations again in 1997. He also qualified with the team for the Rugby Union World Cup 1999 , in which Samoa, after it defeated the host team Wales 38:31 in the group stage, could move into the hope round. With a 35:20 defeat against the Scottish national team , the Samoans missed the quarter-finals.

Then he was under Graham Mourie from 2000 to 2001 assistant coach at the New Zealand franchise Hurricanes , which plays in the international super rugby league. He was released after two seasons along with Mourie. Since then he has been the sporting director of his hometown club Ponsonby RFC . Furthermore, he was from 2001 to 2003 still assistant coach of Mark Anscombe at the second team of the Auckland RFU.

Web links

• Profile on the side of the All Blacks
• Profile on the Ponsonby RFC website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Brown, Michael: Rugby: Once was hatred . In: The New Zealand Herald . April 18, 2010. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
2. ↑ Reid, Neil: Bee Gee: I never felt I was an honorary white . In: Sunday News . May 9, 2010. Archived from the original on September 11, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 6, 2012.