Ewen James Andrew McKenzie is a former Australian Rugby Union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 prop and now professional coach, currently with the Queensland Reds

Queensland Reds

The Queensland Reds represent Queensland in the sport of rugby union in the Southern Hemisphere Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996 they were a representative team selected on merit from the rugby union club competitions in Queensland...

 who won the 2011 premiership. Before taking his current coaching role he coached the NSW Waratahs, reaching the final of the super 14

Super 14

Super Rugby is the largest and pre-eminent professional Rugby union competition in the Southern Hemisphere...

 and the French side Stade Francais.
He was born 21 June 1965 in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, and educated at Scotch College, Melbourne

Scotch College, Melbourne

Scotch College, Melbourne is an independent, Presbyterian, day and boarding school for boys, located in Hawthorn, an inner-eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....

 and the University of New South Wales

University of New South Wales

The University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...

.

Playing career

Ewen McKenzie played prop for the New South Wales Waratahs 37 times between 1987 and 1995 and for the Brumbies 36 times between 1996 and 1997, playing in the 1997 final against the Auckland Blues.

He first represented Australia against on 9 June 1990 and last represented Australia against on 12 July 1997. During the part of his playing career he formed a formidable front row alongside Tony Daley

Tony Daley

Anthony Mark Daley is an English former footballer, who made the vast majority of his appearances for Aston Villa, playing mainly as a winger, well known for his pace...

 and Phil Kearns

Phil Kearns

Philip Nicholas Kearns is a former Australian rugby union player. He represented Australia 67 times and was captain of on 10 occasions....

 as part of Australia's 1991 World Cup winning side.

In his entire career of 51 test matches, he only ever played as a substitute once, during a pool game in the 1995 world cup. After his playing days, he began a successful coaching career.

Coaching career

Ewen first started coaching as an assistant to Rod Macqueen and Eddie Jones in the Wallaby set up before taking over the head position of the Waratahs in November 2003 after Bob Dwyer

Bob Dwyer

Bob Dwyer is an Australian rugby union coach.Educated at Sydney Boys High School, he coached Sydney club Randwick to four Sydney championship wins before becoming Australia's national team coach. He coached Australia from 1982-83, and again from 1988...

 left. He led the team to the 2005 Investec Super 12 final in just his second year at the helm, while the Waratahs were also semi-finalists in 2006 and finalists in 2008.

He was susequently appointed coach to the Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 club Stade Français. McKenzie was named to the position after Fabien Galthié

Fabien Galthié

Fabien Galthié is a French rugby union coach and former player. His usual position was at scrum-half. He played much of his club rugby for Colomiers, and later on in his career, Stade Français. Galthié won 64 caps for France, including four Rugby World Cup appearances, as well as captaining the...

 resigned following the 2007-08 season

2007-08 Top 14 season

The 2007-08 Top 14 Competition was a French domestic rugby union club competition, operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby . Because France hosted the 2007 Rugby World Cup, the competition did not begin at its normal time of August, but instead started on the last weekend in October 2007, one week...

. However, after a disastrous start to the Parisians' 2009–10 season

2009–10 Top 14 season

Stade de France was listed as an alternate home for Stade Français because the club hosted five of their 13 home matches this season at the national stadium. Similarly, Stadium Municipal was listed as an alternate home for Toulouse, who normally play two Top 14 matches a year at that facility...

 placed them in relegation

Promotion and relegation

In many sports leagues around the world, promotion and relegation is a process that takes place at the end of each season. Through it, teams are transferred between divisions based on their performance that season...

 danger, he was sacked on 8 September 2009.

On Friday 9 October 2009 it was announced that McKenzie would be taking over the coaching job of the Queensland Reds

Queensland Reds

The Queensland Reds represent Queensland in the sport of rugby union in the Southern Hemisphere Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996 they were a representative team selected on merit from the rugby union club competitions in Queensland...

in the Super 14. He became the club's 7th coach in 11 years.

The Reds had had several poor seasons and had not won back to back matches for several seasons but were transformed under McKenzie, playing an entertaining, expansive style which led them to a 5th place finish in 2010, narrowly missing out on playoff qualification, before making and then winning the Super Rugby Grand Final in 2011.

McKenzie also coached the Wallabies in 2007 in Paris against France, in a trial match before the World Cup 2007.