Brian Smith, Australian-Irish rugby player and coach
Brian Smith (born 9 September 1966) is an Australian rugby union coach and former rugby union and rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. He played for both Australia and Ireland in rugby union.
Smith was born in St George, Queensland. He played rugby union for Queensland, and won six caps for Australia in 1987. He played in two Varsity matches for Oxford University as well as captaining them. He played nine times for Ireland between 1989 and 1991 as a fly-half. For the 1990/91 season he played club rugby for Leicester Tigers in England.
He later played rugby league for Balmain Tigers (1991 to 1993) and Eastern Suburbs (1994) in the NSWRL competition. In 1992, he played for City Origin. He played mainly as a five-eighth and also as a halfback.He has coached rugby union at the Ricoh Rugby Club in Japan, Eastern Suburbs in Sydney, Bath Rugby, the youth setup in New South Wales, and was coaching co-ordinator at the ACT Brumbies. He has coached at representative level with the Australia Sevens side. While Director of Rugby at London Irish in the Guinness Premiership, Smith was linked with the Ireland job as a replacement for Eddie O'Sullivan. In July 2008 he was appointed England attack coach.