Denis Lawson "Dave" Cowper (28 November 1908 – 1981) was an Australian national representative

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 who captained 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 ...

for six matches including three Tests in 1933. He was the first Victorian player to captain his country in rugby union.Australian Rugby – The Game and the Players (Jack Pollard Syd, 1994) pp 123: Cowper, Denis Lawson "Dave" (1908–1981)

Club career

Born at

Mosman, New South Wales Mosman is a suburb on the Lower North Shore region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Mosman is located 8 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local governm ...

Cowper was educated at

Newington College , motto_translation = To Faith Add Knowledge , location = Inner West and Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = A ...

in Sydney (1923–1927). He played club rugby with the

Northern Suburbs Rugby Club Northern Suburbs Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club in Sydney, Australia, that was formed in 1900 from the merger of the Pirates and Wallaroos clubs. The club competes in the Shute Shield competition run by the New South Wales Rugby Union ...

before relocating to Melbourne at age 21 where he continued at the

Melbourne Rugby Union Football Club The Melbourne Rugby Union Football Club, is a rugby union football club based in Melbourne, Australia. Nicknamed the Unicorns, the club plays at Romanis Reserve in Prahran and was founded in 1926. The club's colours are green, blue and gold. H ...

. He trialled for Australia as a sprinter, placing third in the national trials for the 100m held to select a team for the

1932 Summer Olympics The 1932 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the X Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1932) were an international multi-sport event held from July 30 to August 14, 1932 in Los Angeles, California, United States. The Games were held duri ...

Representative career

He made his representative debut in 1930 for Victoria against

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 ...

scoring three tries in a narrow 36–41 loss. He was then selected in the 1931 full Australian side sent to New Zealand and captained by Syd Malcolm with

Cyril Towers Cyril Towers (30 July 1906 – 9 June 1985) was an Australian rugby union player, a state and national representative centre who made 57 appearances for the Wallabies, played in 19 Test matches and captained the national side on three occasions ...

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 ...

in the senior playing group. They won three, drew one and lost six matches including the single Test. Cowper played in nine of the ten matches, three on the wing and the rest at centre. Cowper scored two tries in his Test debut in 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 ...

match played at

Eden Park Eden Park is New Zealand's largest sports stadium, with a capacity of 50,000. Located in central Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, it is three kilometres southwest of the CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount Eden and King ...

and was the second top-scorer of the tour with six tries.Howell p104 In 1932 he again met 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 ...

in three Test appearances when they came to Australia, scoring tries in two of those fixtures. Howell describes him as having "speed to burn, a great outside swerve, sound in defence and a born leader of men". In 1933, Cowper was in 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 ...

. He played in 17 of the 23 games including all five Tests and was the tour top scorer with 34 points from four tries, nine conversions and a dropped goal. He captained Australia in three tour matches and in three Tests, being first honoured as captain in the first Test of the tour when Malcolm and Ross were unavailable through injury. Though born in New South Wales, Cowper at that point became the first Victorian to captain the Wallabies.Howell p104 He made further state representative appearances for

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

and Victoria in 1934 and 1935.

Coaching career

He became an Australian selector and was assistant manager and coach of the squad for the 1957-58 Australia rugby union tour of Britain, Ireland and France. The tour was a disappointment with the Wallabies losing all five Tests. Howell writes that Cowper, "ever the gentleman, never criticised the players, even when he had every right to....he personified the true amateur, playing always to the rules with a strict code of ethics". Squad member

Nicholas Shehadie Sir Nicholas Michael Shehadie, (15 November 1926 – 11 February 2018) was a Lord Mayor of Sydney (1973–1975) and national representative rugby union captain, who made thirty career test appearances for Australia between 1947 and 1958. He wa ...

was less complimentary in his published recollections, suggesting Cowper had limited imagination as a coach and their training was "devoid of variety which made it very tedious".Shehadie p194 His son

Bob Cowper Robert Maskew Cowper (born 5 October 1940) is a former cricketer who played Test cricket for Australia from 1964 to 1968, and Sheffield Shield cricket for Victoria and Western Australia from 1960 to 1970. Cricket career Bob Cowper was the so ...

played

Test cricket Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last fo ...

for Australia in the 1960s.

References

External links

Dave Cowper at StatsGuru

Bibliography

* 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 * Zavos, Spiro (2000) ''Golden Wallabies'' Penguin Sydney * Shehadie, Nicholas (2003) ''A Life Worth Living'', Simon & Schuster Australia

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Copwer, Dave 1908 births 1981 deaths Australian rugby union coaches Australian rugby union players Australian rugby union captains Australia international rugby union players Rugby union centres People educated at Newington College Rugby union players from Sydney