Ben Tune (born 28 December 1976) is a former Australian

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player. He played most of his rugby career on the wing but later switched to

outside centre In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16– ...

Early career

Tune was born in Brisbane and educated at St Paul's School, Bald Hills and played his junior rugby for Brothers/Teachers North. He went on to play for GPS Rugby. He played for the

Queensland Reds The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team for the Australian state of Queensland that competes in the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996, they were a representative team selected from the rugby union club competition ...

in their inaugural

Super 12 Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

season in 1996, making his debut against the Highlanders.

Wallabies

Tune made his test debut in 1996, playing

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. Tune was an important member of the national side that claimed the

1999 Rugby World Cup The 1999 Rugby World Cup was the fourth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial international rugby union championship. It was principally hosted by Wales, and was won by Australia. This was the first Rugby World Cup to be held in the sport's professi ...

in Wales, even scoring a try in the final against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. He returned to the Reds' lineup and retired after the 2007 season. He was named on the right wing in the

Wallaby Team of the Decade To celebrate 10 years of professional rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it ...

. At the end of his career, Tune had scored 24 tries in 47 tests for the Wallabies.

Post playing career

He took a commentating position on

Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as Ten Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network owned by Ten Network Holdings, a division of the Paramount Networks UK & Australia subsidiary of Paramount Global. One of five ...

alongside Rupert McCall and former team mate

Ben Darwin Ben Darwin (born 17 October 1976) is a former Australian rugby union footballer. A graduate of the Australian Institute of Sport scholarship program , he played 28 times for the Wallabies, Australia's national team, from 2001 to 2003. During t ...

. in 2013, Tune went public about his mental health issues and suicide attempt, reporting, "I can honestly say I am now a relatively content man, who can actually get excited about a future I never thought I'd have."

References

External links

Queensland Reds Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tune, Ben 1976 births Living people Australian rugby union players Australia international rugby union players Queensland Reds players Rugby union centres Rugby union wings Rugby union players from Brisbane Australian rugby union commentators