James Kenneth Michael Lenehan (29 April 1938 – 26 August 2022) 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 it ...

footballer. A

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and

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representative versatile back, he played twenty-four Test matches for Australia, once as captain. His national representative career spanned a ten-year period during which time he made two grand

Wallaby 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 som ...

tours to the northern hemisphere and

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and numerous appearances against

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and

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

Early life

A grazier's son, Lenehan was born and raised in the Riverina town of

Narrandera Narrandera ( ) until around 1949 also spelled "Narandera", is a town located in the Riverina region of southern New South Wales, Australia. The town lies on the junction of the Newell and Sturt highways, adjacent to the Murrumbidgee River, and ...

near

Wagga Wagga, New South Wales Wagga Wagga (; informally called Wagga) is a major regional city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, with an urban population of more than 56,000 as of June 2018, Wagga Wagga is the state's ...

.Classic Wallabies Player Profiles
James Kenneth Lenehan
classicwallabies.com.au He was sent to boarding school in Sydney at

Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview Saint Ignatius' College Riverview is an Australian independent single-sex primary and secondary day and boarding school for boys, conducted in the Jesuit tradition, located in Riverview, a small suburb located on the Lane Cove River on the ...

. Howell, Max (2005) ''Born to Lead – Wallaby Test Captains'', Celebrity Books, Auckland NZ. pp. 179–181. He was a schoolboy hurdler of some note at the GPS athletics level. In the 1956 GPS athletics competition, he won the open shot put with 57 feet, 21 inches, and the open 120 yards hurdles in 14.5 seconds. Riverview legend has it that the shot put hit the picket fence some way up and so the record could only be measured to the fence. His shot put record stood until 1999 and his hurdles unbeaten until 2009. After school his rugby career continued with the Wagga Wagga Waratahs and the Narrandera Rugby Club.

Representative rugby career

Lenehan was a tremendous left-foot punt kicker of the ball and is said to have regularly kicked the ball 75 m in matches. He was an excellent goal-kicker and a punishing defender who used his full 14 stone playing weight to hit opponents ferociously. His potential was noticed at school by national coach Alan Roper, who also coached at Riverview. At 19 years of age with only some school and country rugby behind him, he was trialled and selected in the squad for the Wallabies

1957–58 Australia rugby union tour of Britain, Ireland and France Between late 1957 and March 1958 the Australia national rugby union team – the Wallabies – conducted a world tour encompassing Britain, Ireland, France and Canada on which they played five Tests and thirty-one minor tour matches. The Wallabi ...

. His eight-month tour was a dream representative debut. His Test debut was made against

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

and he played in four of the five Tests of the tour and in thirty-two of the total forty-one games. He was the leading point scorer (114 points) and leading try scorer (13). He caused some controversy in the 3rd Test – that against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

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when he knocked England's Peter Thompson out cold in a tackle that some of the crowd felt was late and cynical. He was booed by the Twickenham crowd as he had been similarly by the crowd in the tour match against

Swansea RFC Swansea Rugby Football Club is a Welsh rugby union team which plays in the Welsh Premiership. The club play at St Helen's Rugby and Cricket Ground in Swansea and are also known as ''The Whites,'' in reference to their home kit colours. History T ...

three weeks earlier. In a tour which was not successful for the Wallabies (winning nil from five Tests and only winning 22 of the total 41 matches) Lenehan's performances were strong and he returned to Australian with his playing reputation enhanced. In 1958 he made 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 Australia against the visiting New Zealand Maori and that same year embarked on a tour of New Zealand where he played in two tour matches but was prevented from any Test appearances due to injury. In 1959 he played for Australia in both Tests against the visiting British Lions as well as in state and regional representative teams that met them. In 1961 he made his first tour to

playing in five of the six possible tour matches including both Tests against the

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 ...

. That year he played at fullback in the one-off Sydney Test against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. In 1962 he was honoured with the national captaincy in the second Test against 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 Sydney. He would have captained the side in the first Test but was kept out by injury and that honour went to Peter Johnson. On the tour to New Zealand that same year he was the squad's vice-captain with

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 ...

commencing his leadership ascendancy at that time. Lenehan played in nine of the thirteen matches, including all three Tests and captained the side in a mid-week tour game. Injury stopped him making any representative appearances in 1963 and he was sent home from a tour squad bound for South Africa with a knee problem. In 1965 he returned to the national scene for two Tests against the

which Australia won. His devastating defensive capabilities saw him named for the 1966–67 Australia rugby union tour of Britain, Ireland and France. Along with Tony Miller he became at that time, one of only two Australian players after Nicholas Shehadie to make his second "grande tour" since till that point Wallaby tours to the British Isles and Europe were always spaced a decade apart. He enjoyed another successful tour playing in all five Tests, 23 of the 36 possible matches and placing 2nd as tour point scorer behind

Phil Hawthorne Phillip Francis Hawthorne (24 October 1943 – 18 September 1994) was an Australian rugby league and rugby union footballer – a dual-code international. He represented the Wallabies in twenty-one Tests and the Kangaroos in three Tests. He c ...

. Later in 1967 he made the final state and national appearance of his illustrious career when the Irish national team toured to Sydney.

Accolades

Lenehan was inducted into the Wagga Wagga City Council, Sporting Hall of Fame and given a biographical entry on the city website.

References

External links

Jim Lenehan record at StatsGuru

Lenehan at Wagga City Sporting Hall of Fame
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lenehan, Jim 1938 births 2022 deaths Australian rugby union captains Australian rugby union players Australia international rugby union players Rugby union players from Wagga Wagga Rugby union fullbacks People educated at Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview