John Eales will go down as one of the greatest locks to ever grace the game of rugby. The talented second-rower was nicknamed "nobody" because "nobody's perfect" Eales possessed pretty much every skill the modern rugby player requires. Mobility, fantastic hands, mastery of the set-piece, advanced reading of the game, strong defence, a huge work rate and had a kicking boot that most flyhalves would be envious of.
The sight of the big second row lining up kicks at goal always provided a sense of wonder for those watching, but the statistics speak for themselves, with Eales kicking a total of 163 international points, including several match-winning attempts.
Eales attended Marist College Ashgrove, and played cricket for the school alongside Australian Test cricketer Matthew Hayden. A natural sportsman, Eales also played cricket for Queensland University, before concentrating on rugby with his club brothers, Queensland, and the full Australian international side.
Not only that, he was thoroughly accomplished as a captain, tactically astute and a shrewd general of his resources and it is no coincidence that his international career ran in parallel with Australian rugby's most successful era.
He debuted for the Wallabies against Wales in 1991 winning the match 63-6 victory and from there a legend was born. Eales played 20 tests against the All Blacks winning 11 and losing 9. Of those 20 tests, he captained the Wallabies 11 times against the All Blacks, winning 6 and losing 5.
He represented the Reds in 112 games scoring a total of 402 points in the Super 12 competition with 6 tries, 66 conversions and 80 penalties. No forward has scored more points than him in the competition's history.
Eales captained the Wallabies in 55 occasions of his 86 international caps and when he retired in 2001 he held the following records:
- Fifth highest international career points tally for an Australian
- One of only 12 Australians to score 100 or more career points and the only forward to do so.
- First, on the all-time career points scoring list for forwards and the only forward to score more the 100 test points.
- The most-capped lock of all time, with 84 test appearances in that position (the other two tests were as a number eight).
- One of 5 players to win the Rugby World Cup twice
JW April 2017
Career
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Brothers Rugby Club (QLD) 1st Team No 5 Lock |
1989 - 1999 |
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Australia No 5 Lock |
1991 - 2001 |
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Queensland Country No 5 Lock |
1990 - 2001 |
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Queensland Reds No 5 Lock |
1990 - 2001 |
