community rugby - Australian Sports Commission

VALE
Paul Collins 1916 - 2005
Paul Collins was a renowned fly half and Australia’s second oldest living Test player when he passed away on 26 December 2005, aged 89.
He began his rugby career at Barker College in Sydney, and went on to play 71 first grade club matches with four Sydney clubs (Wests, Easts,
Norths and Gordon) and six representative games for New South Wales, after making his debut for the State in 1937. In that same year, at the
age of 22, he made his international debut at the Sydney Cricket Ground, against the visiting Springboks.
In 1938 the official rugby news magazine wrote about him “from his early school days he gave every indication he would become a footballer of
renown”. He was described as “a perfect handler, who practically takes and passes the ball in one action” with “a lot of flair in attack”.
Collins played two more Tests for Australia, both in 1938 and both against New Zealand, and the following year was a member of the Wallaby
Tour to Great Britain.
His last Test in 1938 was also the last Test played by Australia until 1946 when the war was over. The 1939 Wallaby Tour of the United Kingdom
of which Collins was a member, was cancelled when war was declared the day after the team arrived in England.
One of the most influential administrators in the game, John Dedrick OAM, passed away on 10 November 2005.
Appointed as Secretary of the ARU in 1976 and as the organisation’s inaugural Executive Director in 1981, Dedrick was most well-known for
his instrumental role in ensuring Rugby’s financial future in the amateur era, through the negotiation of several landmark sponsorship deals;
in bringing about law changes to enhance safety for junior players, and in securing Australia’s place as co-host of the inaugural Rugby World
Cup in 1987.
A life member of the NSW Rugby Union Referees Association, he refereed more than 200 first-grade matches, and countless schoolboy and
international matches over a 30-year period.
Despite battling a serious illness for some time, John always made a special effort to attend Rugby events, including watching the Australian
Schoolboys take on the visiting Japanese Schools in his final months.
John Dedrick was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to Rugby Union, the same year he resigned from the ARU, 1988,
after 13 years of devoted duty.
John Dedrick 1928 – 2005
Eddie Stapleton 1931 - 2005
Hailed as one of Australian Rugby’s greatest wingers, Eddie Stapleton played 16 Tests for Australia and 13 matches for NSW between 1951
and 1958.
Southern Districts born and bred, the powerful attacking winger made his first grade debut for St George in 1949 and went on to play 236 first
grade matches for the club, including captaining the team to their only premiership win in 1957.
Stapleton’s NSW debut came in 1951 and his Wallaby debut the same year, in a three Test series against the All Blacks.
He made his name as a world-class winger on tour in South Africa in 1953, playing in all four Tests and, in the second Test, scoring a try and a
conversion, and setting up the winning try that ended South Africa’s 15-year undefeated run against Australia.
Stapleton went on to become the 613th All Black, when, in 1960, he played against Queensland for an injury depleted New Zealand side en
route to South Africa.
Post retirement, he chaired the committee that oversaw the merger of the St George and Port Hacking clubs into the Southern Districts Rugby
Union, later becoming a life member of the St George, Burraneer and Southern Districts Rugby Union Clubs.
Eddie Stapleton passed away on 13 November 2005, aged 74.
Dual rugby/cricket international Alan Walker was an immensely talented athlete who played 10 Rugby matches for New South Wales and five
Tests for Australia, before being selected in the Australian cricket team.
Walker earned selection for NSW in 1947, after replacing Trevor Allen in the Sydney 1st XV and won his first Test cap in the Bledisloe Cup match
in Brisbane the same year.
His performances earned him a spot on the 1947-48 tour of Britain and France, where he played 21 tour matches as well as Tests against
England and France. He was the top try scorer on that tour with 19 tries, including a dazzling try against England that ended up in diagrams in
match programmes and books for years to come.
Walker played two Tests against the visiting British Lions in 1950, before concentrating his efforts on becoming an international cricketer,
touring South Africa with Lindsay Hassett’s Australian team in 1949-50.
He was retrospectively presented with his Wallaby Test cap in 2002, at the inaugural John Eales Medal dinner, and passed away three years
later, on 19 June 2005.
Alan Walker 1926 – 2005
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