Walsh re-signs with the ARU

Editor

Australia Women’s Sevens head coach Tim Walsh has agreed to a contract that will keep the former Australia Sevens player at the ARU until 2018.

Walsh, who was promoted from Sevens coaching co-ordinator to the role as head coach in September 2013, last weekend led the side to Australia’s first-ever World Series triumph in Clermont-Ferrand.

During his tenure, Walsh has won 81 out of 96 World Series games over three seasons at a winning percentage of 84%, coaching the team to tournament wins in Dubai (2013 and 2015), Sao Paulo (2014, 2016), London (2015) and Atlanta (2016) in the process.

The 37-year-old also qualified the Australia Men’s Sevens team for the Rio 2016 Olympic via the Oceania Regional Qualifier in November 2015.

"As a program we've achieved so much over the past three years and really begun to shape a positive, successful and sustainable future for women’s sevens rugby," Walsh told the official ARU website.

"It is a tremendous privilege to be given this responsibility and I am looking forward to the ensuing years and the challenges that lay ahead."

ARU General Manager, High Performance Ben Whitaker, said: "Tim [Walsh] has done a great job with the Women’s Sevens program over the past three seasons and we’re delighted he has agreed to extend his time in this critical leadership position.

"Tim is a talented young coach who has a tremendous work ethic and willingness to learn, an obvious understanding of the Sevens game and has proven a very constructive leader and builder of relationships – all major pre-requisites for an effective and successful national coach."

Walsh’s deal encompass the Rio 2016 Olympics, the 2016/17 and 2017/18 World Rugby Women’s Sevens Series, the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast and the 2018 World Cup Sevens in San Francisco.