John Brass (born 7 October 1946) is an Australian former

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 ...

and

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer - a dual-code international. He made twelve international representative rugby union appearances with 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 ...

from 1966 to 1968 and six representative rugby league appearances for the

Kangaroos Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

in 1970 and 1975, as national captain on one occasion.

Background

John Brass was born 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 ...

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 ...

, Australia

Rugby union career

His junior football was with the South Coogee juniors. He was educated at

Sydney Boys High School Sydney Boys High School (”SBHS”), otherwise known as The Sydney High School (“SHS”) or High, is a Education in Australia#Government schools, government-funded Single-sex school, single-sex Selective school (New South Wales), academically s ...

, graduating in 1963 and went on to play first grade rugby with the Randwick rugby club in their premiership winning sides of 1965 to 1967. Brass credits watching Randwick scrumhalf prodigy

Ken Catchpole Kenneth William Catchpole (21 June 1939 – 21 December 2017) was an Australian rugby union footballer. A New South Wales Waratahs, state and Australia national rugby union team, national representative half-back, he played twenty-seven matche ...

in action at the Sydney Sports Ground in 1959 as the early inspiration for his wanting to play rugby. He made his debut for New South Wales against Queensland in 1966 at the age of 19, and nine days later played for New South Wales against the touring British Lions. Injured for the first Test against the Lions, he then debuted for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in the infamous 2nd Test in Brisbane, which saw an injury-hit Australia defeated 31-nil. He then won national selection with the

for the coveted

1966–67 Australia rugby union tour of Britain, Ireland and France Between October 1966 and March 1967 the Australia national rugby union team – the Wallabies – conducted a world tour on which they played five Tests and thirty-one minor tour matches. Under the captaincy of John Thornett they toured UK, Irel ...

, playing in all five Tests and in 32 of the 36 tour matches. Partnering with veteran centre

Dick Marks Richard James Pickett Marks, (born 6 September 1942) is an Australian former rugby union footballer and noted administrator.Jack Pollard; ''Australian Rugby: The Game and the Players''; Ironbark; 1994 He played 17 Tests for Australia between 196 ...

through all the internationals, Brass scored his first Test try for Australia against Scotland at Murrayfield. He played with in the historic Wallaby victories over Wales and England, and scored his second Test try at Twickenham against the English. In the 1968 season, he played alongside Randwick centre Phil Smith in the 1st

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 ...

Test 11-27 loss to New Zealand and the 11-10 victory over France in Sydney and was selected for the 1968 short tour of Scotland and Ireland, playing in the 3-10 defeat to Ireland and the 3-9 loss to Scotland. After a disappointing 1968 season for Australian rugby Union, Brass announced he was switching codes, after being offered a record contract to play Rugby League with

Eastern Suburbs Eastern Suburbs may refer to: Places *Eastern Suburbs (Mumbai), India *Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Australia **Eastern Suburbs railway line, Sydney, Australia Sports clubs ;Association football *Eastern Suburbs AFC, Auckland, New Zealand * Eastern ...

. Brass would later reflect fondly on his amateur rugby touring days, telling film maker Theo Clark in 2016: "Overall, the encompassing thing was just what a wonderful experience it was - a dollar-a-day stuff but, you know, some people would say a dollar-a-day and we were probably overpaid."

Rugby league career

Switching to rugby league in 1969 he joined the

("Roosters") club on a then record contract of A$30,000 pa. In 1970, he was made captain of the Roosters' first grade side and was selected for

in the interstate series against Queensland. He represented Australia in rugby league in all three Tests against Great Britain in 1970. His international rugby league debut against Great Britain in Brisbane on 6 June 1970 alongside

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 ca ...

saw them together become Australia's 32nd and 33rd dual code rugby internationals. For family reasons, he made himself unavailable for the

1972 Rugby League World Cup The sixth Rugby League World Cup was held in France in October and November 1972. Australia started as the favourites to retain the trophy they had won just two years previously. New Zealand had beaten all three of the other nations in 1971 a ...

and the 1973

Kangaroo Tour Kangaroo Tour is the name given to Australian national rugby league team tours of Great Britain and France, tours to New Zealand and the one-off tour to Papua New Guinea (1991). The first Kangaroo Tour was in 1908. Traditionally, Kangaroo Tours to ...

but he was selected for the 1975 World Cup series and captained Australia to victory in a game against New Zealand in that campaign. He is listed on the ''Australian Players Register'' as Kangaroo No.440. He was part of the Roosters' premiership winning sides of

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

and

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

, kicking two goals in the 1974 Grand Final and scoring two tries in the 1975 decider. During the

1976 NSWRFL season The 1976 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the 69th season of Sydney's professional rugby league football competition, Australia's first. Twelve teams, including six of 1908's foundation clubs and another six from around Sydney ...

, Brass played as a for Eastern Suburbs in their unofficial

1976 World Club Challenge The 1976 World Club Challenge was an unofficial trial of what would later become the World Club Challenge concept, with the 1975 NSWRFL season's premiers, Eastern Suburbs hosting the 1975–76 Northern Rugby Football League season's Premiership a ...

match against British champions St. Helens in Sydney.

Post playing

Brass coached the Tweed Heads Seagulls in the Group 18 competition in 1977-78. He had a long career in shopping centre management. In 1995 he was asked to join the board of

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

and remained on the Board when the truce between the warring factions was called in 1997 and the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

was formed. He remained on the board until 2005, when he was replaced by

Gorden Tallis Gorden James Tallis (born 27 July 1973), also known by the nickname of "Raging Bull" for his on-field aggression, is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. A Queensland State of Origin and ...

References

External links

''Sometimes the Best Ever: The Story of the 1966/7 Wallabies'' (Part 1)
documentary by Theo Clark Media, 2017 (YouTube)
''Randwick and the 1966/7 Wallaby Tour''
documentary by Theo Clark Media, 2017 (YouTube)

Sources

* Whiticker, Alan (2004) ''Captaining the Kangaroos'', New Holland, Sydney {{DEFAULTSORT:Brass, John 1946 births Living people Australia international rugby union players Australia national rugby league team captains Australia national rugby league team players Australian rugby league administrators Australian rugby league players Australian rugby union players Dual-code rugby internationals People educated at Sydney Boys High School Rugby league players from Sydney Rugby union players from Sydney Rugby league centres Rugby union centres Sydney Roosters players Sydney Roosters captains