Donald Shade Munro is a Scottish rugby union player, who played at lock/second row.
Playing
He spent two stints in New Zealand, in 1987 he played for club side Greytown where he went on to represent the provincial team, Wairarapa Bush in a Ranfurly Shield Challenge against the mighty Auckland, which included 14 current All Blacks at the time. In Scotland he also played all his club rugby for his beloved Glasgow High Kelvinside. where he played from 1984 to 1997. In 1989-90 he played for the famous unbeaten Glasgow District side that remained unbeaten all season. He was selected to tour New Zealand in 1990, the year of Scotland's 2nd Grand Slam, but he unfortunately suffered an horrendous leg break playing for Scotland against a West of Scotland International Select captained by All Black World Cup winning captain David Kirk. It would be nearly 2 years before Munro played again after initially being told that the injury was so severe he would never play again. He was capped seven times between 1994–97 for. According to Richard Bath :"Munro... would have surely won many more caps but for a horrendous leg injury. He has made great strides as a coach and is currently assistant to Sean Lineen at Glasgow." He also represented Scotland on numerous tour abroad, Japan 1989, South Seas1993 and Argentina in 1994. He also represented Scotland in the 1994 Hong Kong sevens which demonstrates how fast and skillful he was for such a big man. Other career highlights were representing the Barbarians on a Charity tour to Japan to help raise money for the Kobe Earth Quake disaster fund as well as representing the Barbarians on various Easter tours. Other representative honours include playing for the Scottish Saltires, Co-Optimists and Rugby Eccose. In 1997 he played for club side Te Puke Sports where he again went on to represent the provincial team, Bay of Plenty in 14 games, the highlight being another Ranfurly Shield challenge against Auckland at Eden Park. In that same year he had to retire as a result of the knee injury he suffered in 1990.
Coaching
He quickly took to coaching where he found a new lease of life taking charge of the newly formed Glasgow Hawks 2nd XV for the season 1997–1998. The following season he became Assistant Coach of the Glasgow Hawks 1st XV and then became Head Coach the following season where he stayed for a further 3 seasons. It was then that he was employed by the Scottish Rugby Union, on a part-time basis, as part of the coaching staff at the Glasgow Warriors Professional team from 2003. He was an assistant coach for Glasgow Warriors for many years. In his final year 2014-15 at the clubthe Warriors won the Pro12for the first time becoming the first Scottish side to win a major trophy in the professional era. He was the Head Coach of the Scottish Women's national team. He recently became the Lead Coach of the Scottish Rugby Academy's Glasgow campus.
