Derren Witcombe, New Zealand rugby player and cricketer
Derren John Charles Witcombe (born 30 October 1978) is an Australian-born New Zealand rugby union coach and former player. As a player, he played at hooker.
He played for the All Blacks in 2005 and at Super Rugby level for the Blues between 2002 and 2007. He represented Northland and then Auckland at provincial level.
Witcombe retired from playing in 2007 due to a neck injury. He took up coaching and was appointed head coach of Northland in the 2013 and 2014 National Provincial Championships. He departed suddenly in early 2015 to take up a position at Japanese club Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars.In February 2017, Witcombe signed a contract to return to the Northland province as head coach for the 2017 Mitre 10 Cup.Witcombe grew up on a dry stock farm in Taupo Bay before attending high school in Whangarei, where he pursued both Rugby and Cricket. He played Cricket for the Northland province as a wicket keeper/batsman.He went on to work in forestry for four years, playing both Rugby and Cricket at club level, making his debut for Northland in 2001.
1978Oct, 30
Derren Witcombe
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Events on 1978
- 11Feb
Aristotle
Censorship: China lifts a ban on works by Aristotle, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. - 27Apr
Watergate scandal
Former United States President Nixon aide John D. Ehrlichman is released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes. - 25Jul
In vitro fertilisation
Birth of Louise Joy Brown, the first human to have been born after conception by in vitro fertilisation, or IVF. - 22Oct
Pope John Paul II
Papal inauguration of Pope John Paul II. - 18Nov
Jim Jones
In Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones led his Peoples Temple to a mass murder-suicide that claimed 918 lives in all, 909 of them in Jonestown itself, including over 270 children. Congressman Leo Ryan is murdered by members of the Peoples Temple hours earlier.