Liam Barry
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15 March 1971
| Born | Liam John Barry 15 March 1971 Takapuna, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Height | 1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 98 kg (216 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| School | Rosmini College | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Notable relative(s) | Kevin Barry (father) Edward Barry (grandfather) Hilary Barry (sister-in-law)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Liam John Barry (born 15 March 1971) is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former rugby union player. He is currently the Head Coach of the Australia Mens Rugby Sevens Team. Previously, he has been the assistant coach of the New Zealand Mens Rugby Sevens Team, the assistant coach of the Auckland Blues and head coach of North Harbour's provincial rugby union side. He debuted for North Harbour in 1991 at the age of 20, and racked up 83 games over a decade-long provincial career. He had two spells in Japan, playing for NEC from 1997 to 2001 and Kubota from 2002 to 2004.
Barry holds a special place among the long parade of All Blacks for when he was chosen as a 22-year-old for the tour of Scotland and England in 1993 he followed:
in wearing the silver fern. That became the first instance of a family providing three generations of All Blacks. In July 2020 the family provided All Black jerseys worn by the three for display at the New Zealand Rugby Museum in Palmerston North.[2]
On his first tour with the All Blacks Liam Barry became the innocent participant in a major controversy. Coach Laurie Mains brought Mike Brewer into his squad for the latter part of the tour although he had been originally unavailable for business reasons and was in Britain at the time for that purpose. When Brewer was brought in as a reserve for the international against England and especially when he took the field as a replacement against the Barbarians in the tour finale it caused a storm of protest, especially in New Zealand. This was because he had been preferred to official selections in the team in Barry and also John Mitchell. The aftermath came close to Mains being replaced as All Black coach and, in fact, one of his selection colleagues, Peter Thorburn, was dropped for the 1994 season. Mains, apparently, believed Barry in 1993 had shown a lack of readiness for top international rugby and while he went on the development tour of Argentina in 1994 he was overlooked for the All Blacks for the next two seasons.
But at the end of the 1995 season Barry toured France and Italy and gained a test cap in the second international against France. [citation needed] That was the end of his All Black career, though. He was affected by injury for much of the 1996 season and was ruled out of the tour of South Africa.
At the end of that year he took up a contract in Japan, returning to New Zealand for another NPC season with North Harbour in 2001. But after failing to win a Super 12 contract for 2002 Barry at 31 returned for another stint in Japan.[3]