STEPHEN HOILES APPOINTED FIRST GRADE HEAD COACH FOR 2023

Media Release:

RANDWICK RUGBY APPOINTS STEPHEN HOILES AS FIRST GRADE HEAD COACH FOR 2023.

Tuesday, October 25th, 2023

The Randwick District Rugby Union Football Club is today pleased to announce the immediate appointment of Stephen Hoiles as our First Grade Head Coach for the 2023 season and beyond. He takes on this role from Ben McCormack, who after 4 years with us will move back to live in his native Brisbane and we sincerely thank Ben for his significant contribution, particularly during the very challenging COVID years.

Stephen will return from Los Angeles, where he has lived since 2020 and is currently Head Coach of the LA Giltinis team in the American Major League Rugby (MLR) Competition. He was previously Assistant Coach to Darren Coleman in their title winning season.

Prior to this Stephen was the Assistant Coach of the Australian Men’s 7’s Rugby Team for a number of years and comes to us with two decades of experience in high performance programs and incredible rugby knowledge.

As is well documented, Stephen had a decorated playing career, with over 100 First Grade games for Randwick, captained the club and was a member of our last Shute Shield Premiership winning team in 2004. As a representative player his record is phenomenal, playing 16 times for Australia between 2004-2008, he was capped 65 times for NSW including playing in their 2014 Super Rugby title winning team and also played 56 games for the Brumbies, whom he also captained.

Randwick DRUFC President John Tuxworth
said “It is great for our club to end up with a high-quality home-grown coach, whom we have put through a super competitive recruitment process, which attracted so many excellent applicants for this role.”

“We are absolutely delighted Stephen has agreed to return to Sydney and to his old club. He is a Randwick man through & through - a Coogee local, a junior, a colt, a first grader, who then became a Waratah & Wallaby. He now comes the full circle back to lead our First-Grade team and drive it to success as our Head Coach.”
Tuxworth added.

Stephen’s focus as First Grade Head Coach is to strive to return the club to its former glory and win the Shute Shield again as he did in his playing days. He will work closely with our Club Coach Morgan Turinui to ensure we have the best high-performance environment in place for First Grade and our top squad players, that flows across all teams in the club and then in to our hugely successful junior academy, local village clubs and development pathways.

Stephen said “I am extremely thrilled and honoured to be given the opportunity to be the First Grade Head Coach of Randwick Rugby Club. We have a very talented group of players and coaches with a passionate fan base. The club has always meant a lot to my entire family and I’m very excited to return home and begin the preseason next month.”

ENDS

For all media requests or further comment please contact:

Mark Harrison

General Manager

Randwick District Rugby Union Football Club

Via email: office@randwickrugby.com.au