- Alan Solomons
Alan Solomons a lawyer by profession now runs his own Management/Coaching consultancy.
He also does some coaching consultancy work at
Belfast Harlequins helping Harlequins coach Andy Ward and his assistant, Morris Field. Alan Solomons played rugby union for theUniversity of Cape Town , but never played professional rugby, despite being one of the most highly regarded professional coaches in the business. Alan began his coaching career at the University of Cape Town during which time he was working as a lowyer and partner at one of the biggest law firms in Cape Town, Sonnenberg, Hoffmann & Galombik. He coached UCT for 20 years before taking sabbatical from law and a full time position with The Springboks, The Stormers and Western Province.He was also Western Province's assistant coach when they won the
Currie Cup in 1997. In addition he was the successful coach of the Western Province 7s team which won the South African Championships in 1996.He coached the South African
Super 12 (now 14) franchise 'The Stormers' to a home semi final in 1999 and South Africa's Western Province to a Currie Cup final in 1998.He was assistant coach to
Nick Mallett of the South African Rugby Team, 'The Springboks', during which period they went 17 tests unbeaten and came 3rd in the 1999 Rugby World Cup.He has previously been Director of Rugby for Ulster during which time they won the Celtic Cup and were runners up in the Celtic League. At the start of his tenure Ulster were ranked 27th in Europe. When he departed Ulster 3 years later they were ranked 12th. In his final year, 2004, he was Northern Ireland's Sports Manager of the year as well as rugby personality of the year.
He prepared the
Oxford University RFC team for theirVarsity Match on four occasions and in 2003 coached the Barbarians to wins against England, Scotland and Wales. In 2006 he was interim Directory of Rugby for America. He is currently a consultant to theInternational Rugby Board for their High Performance initiative.Sources: Belfast Newsletter, Belfast Telegraph, Cape Argus, Cape Times
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