August 1, 2009

After endless losses to New Zealand, David Brockhoff’s team of 1979 turned the corner, writes Phil Wilkins.


David Brockhoff was the son of a flour miller, emerging from the packaging plant at No.1 Glebe Road in the evenings and dashing off to training at Sydney University Oval covered in flour, the truest of white collar workers.

But he was a blue collar worker by day, walking the waterside and industrial Sydney through Woolloomooloo, Surry Hills and Pyrmont as company salesman, boiling the billy with wharfies and bringing Blue Bottle lemonade to the girls "coming off duty" in Palmer Street.

He never lost the common touch nor was afraid to make hard decisions. Tall, vigorous, an 11-second, 100-yard sprinter, he played for Scots College’s First XV for three years, represented Combined GPS, played his way into Sydney University’s First XV and toured New Zealand with Combined Australian Universities as breakaway only to be recalled for Australia’s two Tests against NZ Maori.

That same year, 1949, he was a member of Trevor Allan’s Wallabies, sharing in the triumph of winning both Tests in Australia’s first team to win the Bledisloe Cup in NZ.

Brockhoff envisaged a club career with Eastern Suburbs under the coaching of dual international Evan "Ted" Jessep. University’s rugby hierarchy had other plans.

Dr John Solomon, a 1949 Wallabies teammate, brilliantly versatile back and future Australian captain – and best man at Brockhoff’s wedding – pleaded: "You have to come back to Uni. Come back home, Brock. You are Uni. We want you to coach."

"No, no, no!" Brockhoff recalled. "They gave me two drinks and made me say yes."
Brockhoff never got beyond a second-year science course, but he mastered in rugby, travelling to Stellenbosch for talks with South Africa’s rugby wizard, Dr Danie Craven, and to NZ’s South Island to embrace their forward ideals.

Brockhoff’s dictatorial manner turned University winter nights into a series of aurora australises, but it worked. "It started to go right in 1968," he reminisced. "John Rouen and Rupert Rosenblum and a good pack. I think that side will go down as the best side and not only the best Uni side."

For Australia, times were grim. In the three decades after the 1949 Wallabies won the Bledisloe Cup, the series losses to NZ were endless, a chain of boiling mud cauldrons. Of the 33 Tests played, Australia won five and drew two.


One of the Wallabies’ better performances came in 1952 with John Solomon captaining the side at 22.

In 1964, a year after the historic two-all Test series draw against the Springboks, John Thornett’s Wallabies with 18 players from South Africa won the third Test in Wellington, 20-5. Yet they lost the series.

When the All Blacks toured in 1968, dual international halfback Des Connor, who had played 12 Tests for NZ between 1961-64 after 10 Tests for Australia, was Wallabies coach.

Australia’s captain, Ken Catchpole, trapped head-first in a maul in Sydney, was dragged by the leg so viciously by Colin Meads that groin ligaments were torn off the bone, ending Catchpole’s career. New Zealand won, 27-11. When Australia led 18-14, two minutes from the end in Brisbane, referee Kevin Crowe ruled against Barry Honan for a late tackle. The penalty try gifted NZ a 19-18 win.

Defeats and disasters accumulated. Sliding towards contempt in NZ eyes, Australia failed to win the Bledisloe Cup in 13 series. Six years passed after the 1972 "Woeful Wallabies’" tour before they were invited back.

This was the scenario as Brockhoff’s club successes unfolded. His appointment became inevitable. In 1975, England sent a young touring side and in the build-up to the Tests, the "Phantom Puncher" was born.

Three English forwards staggered from the field, victims of the heavy-handed treatment of an unknown young prop named Steve Finnane. Australia had an enforcer.

While in themselves random actions, Finnane’s right hand served to draw a deep line in the sand after years of intimidation by All Blacks and Springboks alike where brute force was as important as technical expertise.

Finnane was chosen for the first Test against England with Brockhoff as coach. The Wallabies were triumphant, 16-9, in a bruising encounter. Finnane missed the second Test with an ankle injury and the Battle of Brisbane erupted without him.
From the kick-off, kneeing and punching exploded. Barry Elmes was kicked in the head and fellow England prop Mike Burton was ordered off in the third minute. Australia won the series, two-nil.

Brockhoff’s "Step Forward" policy was set in concrete, the Wallabies never faltering, never retreating. Through the storm of condemnation, Brockhoff stared down his critics.

Two Test wins against Japan and a major tour of Britain with only a 20-10 win over Ireland to show for it followed. Back home, violence again marred the Test wins over Wales with prop Graham Price led off with a broken jaw. It was Finnane’s last series.

Brockhoff’s term of office became historic after the 1979 Test against NZ in Sydney. Overly optimistic after their first "Grand Slam" of wins over the four home unions, NZ agreed to a one-off Bledisloe Cup duel. Building the Australian team on speed, the Wallabies won a tryless international, 12-6.

Brockhoff and his team seized the huge, pure silver cup and made a triumphant lap of honour, celebrating the return of a trophy that Australia – and Brockhoff – had not held since 1949.

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