Australian rugby union player (born 1981)
Rugby player
Stephen Hoiles (born 13 October 1981) is an Australian rugby union coach and former player. He played Super Rugby for the New South Wales Waratahs and previously for the Brumbies. He also represented the Australia national rugby union team. He is currently the first grade head coach at Randwick[1] and was previously head coach of the LA Giltinis in Major League Rugby (MLR) where he won a championship in the team's inaugural season.
Early life
Hoiles joined the Coogee Seahorses Juniors at age six, played his rugby on Saturdays and league on Sundays with the Coogee Wombats. He attended Sydney’s Waverley College and in 1999 played in the 1st XV.[2]
Playing career
After graduation from high school Hoiles, joined the Randwick club and in 2001 he was picked to play for the Australian Men’s 7s team.[2] In 2004, he gained a full-time contract with the NSW Waratahs.[2]
Hoiles represented the Wallabies for the first time in 2004 at the age of 22 in the Test match against Scotland.[2] In 2004, Hoiles was part of the Randwick team that won the Sydney club championship.[3]
He played over 100 first grade games for his club side Randwick as well as over 100 Super Rugby games for the NSW Waratahs and the ACT Brumbies where he was captained for 3 seasons.[citation needed] His professional playing career was put on hold for three & a half seasons with a long term achilles injury. During this time Hoiles travelled to Sweden to have his foot operated on. This surgery allowed Hoiles to return to professional rugby[citation needed] where he joined the NSW Waratahs and was a starting member of the Super Rugby Championship winning team in 2014.
Post playing career
Having retired from playing in 2015, Hoiles began his role as a rugby commentator and TV presenter with Fox Sports.[citation needed] In 2018, Hoiles began coaching professionally where he was the assistant coach of the Australia national rugby sevens team.[4]
In October 2022, Hoiles announced he would no longer continue as head coach of LA Giltinis and would be returning to Australia to coach Randwick for the 2023 season.[5]
In May 2024, Hoiles announced he would be standing down as head coach of Randwick.[6]
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