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Matt O'Connor (rugby union)

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Place of birth
  
Canberra, Australia

Current team
  
Tonga

Spouse
  
Jo O'Connor

Position(s)
  
Assistant Coach

Position
  
Centre

Full name
  
Matthew Gerard O'Connor

Date of birth
  
(1971-01-29) 29 January 1971 (age 46)

Team coached
  
Leinster Rugby (Head coach, 2013–2015)

Children
  
Harry O'Connor, Ryan O'Connor, Sara O'Connor

Matt O'Connor (born 29 January 1971) is an Australian professional rugby union coach and a former international player. He has held head coaching positions at Leicester Tigers where he won the Premiership in 2013, Irish province Leinster where he won the Pro12 in 2013–14, and was co-head coach of the Queensland Reds alongside Nick Stiles during the 2016 Super Rugby season.

Contents

Playing career

O'Connor played rugby for the ACT in the 1990s, and was awarded a single cap for the Wallabies against Ireland in 1994.

He signed for rugby league club the Hunter Mariners in 1996 however the club's existence was threatened by the Super League war so he only played in several trial matches that year. He played for Paris Saint-Germain in 1997. O'Connor spent three years in Japan playing for and then coaching Kubota Rugby Team. He lived in Japan with his wife and three children.

Coaching

Returning to Australia, O'Connor joined the Brumbies as a backline coach in Canberra. He was appointed head coach of Australia A for the Pacific Nations Cup competition.

O'Connor joined the Leicester Tigers as the backline coach under Heyneke Meyer, replacing another former Australian centre, Pat Howard. Leicester won the English Premiership in 2009. O'Connor remained as attack coach when Richard Cockerill took over as head coach for the following season with the club going on to win the Premiership again in 2010. Cockerill was promoted to the position of director of rugby and O'Connor was appointed head coach of Leicester in July 2010, and he was extremely influential in the Tigers Premiership win of 2013.

He was signed as the head coach of Irish province Leinster in 2013, and won the 2013–14 Pro12 title in his first season. The following season, when the team missed out on a play-off spot in the Pro12 and lost at the semi-final stage of the Champions Cup, O'Connor was sacked by Leinster after completing two years of a three-year contract.

O'Connor joined the Queensland Reds as attack coach for 2016. After Richard Graham was sacked two games into the season, O'Connor was appointed as co-interim head coach of the team alongside Nick Stiles.

References

Matt O'Connor (rugby union) Wikipedia