Eddie Stapleton
Encyclopedia
Edgar Thomas Stapleton, (21 November 1930 – 13 November 2005) was an outstanding Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n 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...

 winger who made his mark with the Wallabies and the St George Rugby Club in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 in the 1950s. He was a curiosity in that he played a match for the New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 All Blacks
All Blacks
The New Zealand men's national rugby union team, known as the All Blacks, represent New Zealand in what is regarded as its national sport....

 in 1960.

Stapleton was a strong bulky winger and he played 16 test matches for Australia between 1951 and 1958, touring New Zealand with the Wallabies in 1952, 1955 and 1958. He played many games for the NSW
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 Waratahs
New South Wales Waratahs
The New South Wales Waratahs are an Australian rugby union football team, representing the majority of New South Wales in the Super 15 Super Rugby competition...

 and was outstanding in Sydney club rugby, playing a record 236 games for St George and scoring 144 tries. He was captain when St George won the premiership in 1957, and he retired from the Wallabies the following season.

In 1960, the All Blacks stopped in Australia for warmup matches on their way to a tour of South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. Depleted by injuries, the All Blacks were short of players for the match against Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

 and Stapleton was invited to don the black jersey. He did so to become the 613th player to be selected as an All Black. He had lost none of his dash and repaid the selector's confidence in him by scoring the first try
Try
A try is the major way of scoring points in rugby league and rugby union football. A try is scored by grounding the ball in the opposition's in-goal area...

 for the All Blacks who easily won the match.

Another Australian, Maurice Graham, of NSW, also played in that match, at fullback

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK