The 1963 Australia rugby union tour of South Africa was a series of twenty matches played by the
Australia national rugby union team
The Australia national rugby union team, nicknamed the Wallabies, is the representative national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of Australia. The team first played at Sydney in 1899, winning their first test match against the ...
between June and September 1963. The Wallabies tied the series with the
Springboks winning two and losing two Tests.
The tour was one of the highlights of the successful "
Thornett Era" of Australian Rugby, buoyed by the leadership skills of skipper
John Thornett
John Edward Thornett, MBE (30 March 1935 – 4 January 2019) was an Australian rugby union player, who played 37 Tests for Australia between 1955 and 1967 and made an additional 77 representative match appearances. He captained Australia in 16 T ...
and the outstanding skills of greats of the game like
Ken Catchpole
Kenneth William Catchpole (21 June 1939 – 21 December 2017) was an Australian rugby union footballer. A New South Wales Waratahs, state and Australia national rugby union team, national representative half-back, he played twenty-seven matche ...
,
Peter Johnson and
Rob Heming
Robin John Heming (11 December 1932 – 7 January 2023) was an Australian Lock/ No.8 rugby union player who played 21 tests for Australia between 1961 and 1967. Born in Namatanai in New Ireland off the then Australian Territory of New Guinea ...
.
Dick Marks
Richard James Pickett Marks, (born 6 September 1942) is an Australian former rugby union footballer and noted administrator.Jack Pollard; ''Australian Rugby: The Game and the Players''; Ironbark; 1994 He played 17 Tests for Australia between 196 ...
and
Peter Crittle
Charles Peter Crittle AO (born 21 July 1939) is an Australian former barrister, rugby union player and official. The majority of his secondary education was at Sydney Boys High School where he played in the First XV. Before then he was briefly at ...
also toured and would later become among the most influential administrators of Australian rugby.
[Meares and Howell; Wallaby Legends; Lothian Books, 2005]
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Matches
''Scores and results list Australia's points tally first.''
See also
*
References
{{Rugby union tours of South Africa
Australia national rugby union team tours
1963
Events January
* January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cov ...
Tour
Tour