Rugby United New York named Greg McWilliams as head coach. The 41-year-old coach is from Dublin, Ireland and attended St Michaels College. He also studied HDip in Education at Trinity College.
Greg played both collegiate and club rugby in Ireland. He was the club captain in the All Ireland Men’s League in 1998. He has a stage 4 coaching certificate from the Irish Rugby Football Union and is Level 300 certified from USA Rugby.
Greg began his coaching career as the Director of Rugby for his alma mater, St. Michael’s College, before quickly transitioning into the Head Coach of the school’s 1st XV. He coached the Leinster Under-19 Men from 2010-2014, the Irish Women’s National Team at the Rugby World Cups in London in 2010 and in France in 2014. In 2013 the team won the 6 Nations Championship for the first time.
Following the 2014 season, he moved to the U.S. and became the Director of Rugby and Men’s Head Coach of Yale University. He had been a business and geography teacher for 13 years prior to coming to Connecticut.
He was the USA Men’s Collegiate All-American Assistant Coach from 2015-2017 and coached with the team on tour to Australia in 2016. In 2017 he was selected as the USA Men’s National Team Attack and Backs Coach by John Mitchell and continued in that role with Gary Gold. He was part of the coaching staff when the team won the Americas Rugby Championship and swept the Summer 2018 series. A highlight of that Summer was beating Scotland, the first win over a Tier 1 Nation in 94 years since the 1924 Olympics.
The Eagles are now preparing for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan and then he will devote his full attention to Rugby United New York for their upcoming MLR season.
Rugby United New York Comments
“We look forward to bringing Greg on board with RUNY,” stated RUNY General Manager James English. “He is an excellent player-centered coach, who will continue to build on our solid foundations from our inaugural season. Greg is a major part of our long-term vision for the club.”
“I’m very excited for the new challenge ahead with Rugby United New York,” McWilliams shared. “I look forward to adding to the excellent work done by Mike Tolkin. I loved my time at Yale and look forward to supporting the program moving forward. I would like to thank RUNY General Manager, James English for creating a vision that I am excited to join.”
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