Mark Anscombe
Date of birth | 1957 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Place of birth | Taranaki, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
School | Sacred Heart College, Auckland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Occupation(s) | Rugby Union Coach | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Mark Anscombe (born 1957) is a New Zealand rugby union coach, having played rugby spanning across 15 years. Anscombe (father of Welsh international Gareth Anscombe) has been a rugby union coach since 1994, coaching various ages and styles in both hemispheres. He is a former head coach of the Canadian national team.
Anscombe played over 200 club games for East Coast Bays from 1976 to 1991. Anscombe captained East Coast Bays to back to back Harbour Club championships in 1985 and 1986 over North Shore and Takapuna respectively. After retiring from rugby in 1990 Anscombe then coached the Bays premier side from 1990 to 1994 including the 1991 Harbour Club rugby championship win over Takapuna in 1991. Bays were Championship runners up in 1993 and 1994. Anscombe is one of five East Coast Bays Rugby 200 game double centurions alongside Ian Coley, Slade McFarland, Wayne Hill and Rhys Bennett.
Playing career
Originally from Taranaki, New Zealand, Anscombe moved to
Coaching career
This section of a poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. )Find sources: "Mark Anscombe" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2017) |
Europe
After playing in New Zealand for 15 years, Anscombe turned his attention to coaching, where he began in 1994 in
However, his stay at the club was short lived, as Anscombe left the club in February 1997, being replaced with Allan Lewis[3]
New Zealand
After a short break in New Zealand, Anscombe became a highly recognised coach in Auckland, after coaching the Auckland Colts between 1999 and 2000, before becoming a development coach for the region in 2001. In 2002 and 2003, he joined the regions
In 2004, he became an assistant coach for Allan Pollock at
In March 2008, Anscombe was appointed by the
During that time, Anscombe coached
Europe
In 2012, he was named the new
In Europe, Ulster was seeded fifth after the pool phase of the 2012–13 Heineken Cup, however, they were defeated by Saracens in the quarters 27–16. In Anscombe's second season in charge, Ulster finished fourth at the end of the regular season, but was again beaten by Leinster in the semi-finals 13–9. However, Ulster won all six of their pool games in the 2013–14 Heineken Cup, which included over English and French giants Leicester Tigers and Montpellier. However, like in 2012, they faced Saracens in the quarter-finals and lost, this time 17–15. On 30 June 2014, Anscombe left his position as Ulster Rugby's head coach after two seasons in charge at Ravenhill.[9]
Head coach of Canada
On 30 March 2016, Anscombe was named the new head coach of the Canadian national team, replacing interim head coach Francois Ratier.[10][11] His first match in charge was a home game against Japan at BC Place, where despite being in the lead for most of the match, Japan were the victors, 26–22. A week later, Canada defeated Russia 46–21, and were narrowly beaten by Italy on 26 June, 20–18. During their 2016 November tour to Europe, Canada lost all three games on their campaign. They played Ireland for the first match, which saw the Irish claim a 52–21 win. The following week, Canada lost 21–16 to Romania before narrowly losing to Samoa 25–23 at a neutral venue in France.
In March 2017, Canada finished fifth in the
Following the 2017 June tests and 2019 Rugby World Cup qualifiers against the United States, Rugby Canada conducted a full review of their June–July campaign. The review concluded with the sacking of Anscombe as Canadian rugby head coach on 4 August 2017.[12] Anscombe left the national team with just 2 wins from 15 games, and conceded over 400 points in as many games, while seeing the side slip to their worst ever World Ranking of 23rd.
In 2022, Anscombe joined Wellington School, Somerset as Rugby Consultant.
Honours
New Zealand Under-20 (as assistant coach)
New Zealand Under-20 (as head coach)
- World Rugby Under 20 Championship
- Winners: 2011
- Pro12
- Runners-up: 2013
References
- ^ Rugby: Harbour and Aucks set to clash
- ^ Mark Anscombe to coach Auckland
- ^ Profile, moseleyrugby.co.uk; accessed 27 February 2017.
- ^ Northland Air New Zealand Cup coaches named
- ^ Otago notches half-century over North Harbour
- ^ Mark Anscombe is named as the new Ulster Head Coach
- ^ "Ulster 18-10 Glasgow Warriors". BBC Sport. 1 September 2012. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
- ^ "Anscombe's reign gets off to winning start". Herald. 1 September 2012. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
- ^ "Mark Anscombe leaves position as Ulster head coach". BBC Sport. 30 June 2014. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
- ^ "MARK ANSCOMBE ANNOUNCED AS RUGBY CANADA'S MEN'S FIFTEENS PROGRAM HEAD COACH". Archived from the original on 22 July 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
- ^ Anscombe confirmed as Canada coach
- ^ RUGBY CANADA STATEMENT ON NATIONAL MEN’S 15S LEADERSHIP AND PROGRAM REVIEW