Robert John O'Dea (27 January 1930 – 16 July 1986) was a New Zealand

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. A flanker, O'Dea represented

Thames Valley The Thames Valley is an informally-defined sub-region of South East England, centred on the River Thames west of London, with Oxford as a major centre. Its boundaries vary with context. The area is a major tourist destination and economic hub, ...

at a provincial level, and was a member of the New Zealand national side, the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987 ...

, on their 1953–54 tour of Britain, Ireland, France and North America. He played five matches on that tour but did not appear in any internationals. O'Dea's grandsons, Edwin,

Ben Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin, Benedict, Bennett or Benson, and is also a given name in its own right. Ben (in he, בֶּן, ''son of'') forms part of Hebrew surnames, e.g. Abraham ben Abraham ( he, � ...

and

Sam O'Dea Sam O'Dea (born 24 November 1990) is a New Zealand beach volleyball player. Sam and his brother Ben O'Dea represented New Zealand at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, where they won the bronze medal in the Beach volleyball at the 2018 Commonwealth G ...

, are noted

beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of the ...

players.

References

1930 births 1986 deaths Rugby union players from Gisborne, New Zealand New Zealand rugby union players New Zealand international rugby union players Thames Valley rugby union players Rugby union flankers People educated at Morrinsville College {{NewZealand-rugbyunion-bio-1930s-stub