Cyril Towers (30 July 1906 – 9 June 1985) was an 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, a state and

national National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

representative centre who made 57 appearances for the

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...

, played in 19 Test matches and captained the national side on three occasions in 1937.

Club career

Cyril Towers was born in Mansfield, Victoria. His father was killed at

Gallipoli The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles ...

when he was nine-years-old. After his mother remarried, his family moved first to

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, then to

Roma, Queensland Roma is a rural town and locality in the Maranoa Region, Queensland, Australia. It is the administrative centre of the Maranoa Region. The town was incorporated in 1867 and is named after Lady Diamantina Bowen (née di Roma), the wife of Sir Geo ...

, before they settled in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. Towers attended

Randwick Boys High School Randwick Boys' High School (RBHS) is a high school located in Randwick, Sydney, Australia, between Rainbow Street and Avoca Street. It is a boys' high school operated by the New South Wales Department of Education with students from years 7 to ...

where he was taught

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

by Oates Taylor, described by former Australian rugby coach Bob Dwyer as a "forward-thinking coach." Towers was later transferred to

Waverley College , motto_translation = Virtue alone ennobles , location = 131 Birrell Street , city = Waverley, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , type = Independent early learn ...

where he came under the influence of coach Arthur Hennessey and future

player

Wally Meagher Francis Wallace Meagher (1903 – 14 December 1966) was a rugby union player who represented Australia. Meagher, a Scrum-half (rugby union), scrum-half, was born in Sydney and claimed a total of 8 international rugby caps for Australia. He was i ...

, whom he would play with on the 1927–28 New South Wales rugby union tour of the British Isles, France and Canada. Towers' club career was with

Randwick DRUFC Randwick District Rugby Union Football Club, also known as the Galloping Greens, is an Australian rugby union club which competes in the Sydney premier grade rugby union competition. The club was formed in 1882 and since then has won 32 first gr ...

in Sydney for whom he made 233 first grade appearances. Along with Wally Meagher his senior at Randwick, Towers pioneered the application of running rugby tactics at the club. "Attack" was the main credo, setting up the wings the main goal and kicking for touch was frowned upon.

Representative career

His representative debut was as a 19-year-old in 1926 when selected for the

New South Wales Waratahs The New South Wales Waratahs ( or ;), referred to as the Waratahs, are an Australian professional rugby union team representing the majority of New South Wales in the Super Rugby competition. The Riverina and other southern parts of the state, ...

to appear against a touring

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 ...

outfit. New South Wales won the match 26–20 and Towers was recalled for the fourth encounter which the hosts lost 21–28. With no

Queensland Rugby Union The Queensland Rugby Union, or QRU, is the Sports governing body, governing body for the sport of rugby union within the state of Queensland in Australia. It is a member and founding union of Rugby Australia. The QRU was founded in Brisbane in ...

administration or competition in place from 1919 to 1929, the

were the top Australian representative

side of the period and these debut matches were in 1986 decreed by the

Australian Rugby Union Rugby Australia Ltd, previously named the Australian Rugby Union Limited and Australian Rugby Football Union Limited, is an Australian company operating the premier rugby union competition in Australia and teams. It has its origins in 1949. It ...

as official Test matches. Towers was selected for the 1927–28 New South Wales rugby union tour of the British Isles, France and Canada, turning 21 on the ship going over. He played in 25 matches of the tour exceeded only by Wylie Breckenbridge (29),

Tom Lawton Thomas Anthony Lawton (born Darwin, 1 November 1962) is a former Australian rugby union player. He played as a hooker. Career Lawton comes from a known rugby union family: his grandfather, Tom Lawton, Snr was an important medic and, during his ...

(27) and

Alex Ross Nelson Alexander Ross (born January 22, 1970) is an American comic book writer and artist known primarily for his painted interiors, covers, and design work. He first became known with the 1994 miniseries ''Marvels'', on which he collaborated wi ...

(29). With Jack Ford he was the equal top try scorer and the equal second highest point scorer behind Lawton. He played in three Test matches of the tour. He wrote a travel diary of the 1927–28 tour which was serialised between June and December 1928 for the magazine ''Australian Banker''. (Towers worked in banking). His Test match reports are quoted extensively in the tour article. Towers toured

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in 1928 with the Waratahs under Syd Malcolm as captain. Geoff Bland was the only other veteran from the 1927 World Tour squad and five matches in total were won and five lost. Towers played in all matches, including three Tests and was top scorer with 29 points. Howell quotes Chester and McMillan from ''The Visitors'': '' "Towers was hailed by many critics as the best centre in the world rugby and was certainly one of the great Australian players of all time"''. In 1929 the

toured Australia, Towers was in two of the three Test sides captained by

which for the first time in history beat the All Blacks 3–0 in a series whitewash. With the

now back in existence for the first time since 1919 this was the first truly national

side fielded since 1914.

National captain

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

toured Australia in 1930 and Towers played against them in four matches for state and country. Then in 1931 he was a senior in the full Australian side sent to New Zealand with Syd Malcolm as captain. They won three, drew one and lost six matches including the single Test but Towers played in nine matches, was the tour's top try-scorer and was honoured for the first time with the national captaincy in a minor match against Seddon Shield Districts. In 1933, Towers was left out of the squad that made Australia's first ever rugby tour of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. It was a controversial omission made by team manager Dr Wally Mathews because of Towers' forthrightness and perceived disruptiveness. Still he had further representative appearances ahead of him. In 1934 he played in the two match series against the

in which the Wallabies wrestled away the

Bledisloe Cup The Bledisloe Cup is an annual rugby union competition originally staged between the national teams of Australia's Wallabies and New Zealand's All Blacks that has been contested since the 1930s. The frequency that the competition is held has va ...

for the first time. Then in 1937 perhaps his finest hour, as Australia's Test captain in the 9–5 defeat against the touring

Springboks The South Africa national rugby union team, commonly known as the Springboks (colloquially the Boks, Bokke or Amabokoboko), is the country's national team governed by the South African Rugby Union. The Springboks play in green and gold jersey ...

then hailed as the finest side in the world, in which game Towers scored all of Australia's points and inspired the defence to hold out the Boks onslaught.Howell p116 He retired in 1940 after having again been left out of the 1939 Wallaby side – a blessing since the team travelled to the other side of the world but did not play a match due to the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He had played 57 matches for Australia, 19 of them Tests, 2 of those as captain.

Post-playing and family

In retirement he was one of the first rugby commentators, becoming known as the "voice of rugby" from his broadcasts for the

Australian Broadcasting Commission The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-owned ...

. His son-in-law

Jake Howard John Leslie Patrick "Jake" Howard (30 August 194511 December 2015) was an international rugby footballer who played prop for Australia. Howard was schooled at St. Joseph's College, Hunters Hill from 1957 ''Cerise & Blue obituary Mar2016 and en ...

played in the front-row for the Wallabies in the 1970s. Jake's son, Cyril's grandson Pat Howard, also played centre for Australia in the 1990s. A plaque in the

Sydney Cricket Ground The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in Sydney, Australia. It is used for Test cricket, Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australian rules football and occasionally for rugby league, rugby union and as ...

's Walk of Honour commemorates Towers' career. In 2006 he was honoured in the second set of inductees into the

Hall of Fame

References

Sources

* * Collection (1995) ''Gordon Bray presents The Spirit of Rugby'', Harper Collins Publishers Sydney * Howell, Max (2005) ''Born to Lead – Wallaby Test Captains'', Celebrity Books, Auckland NZ

External links

Stats

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Towers, Cyril 1906 births 1985 deaths Australian rugby union players Australia international rugby union players Australian rugby union captains Rugby union players from Victoria (Australia) Rugby union centres Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees