Nicholas Campbell Farr-Jones AM (born 18 April 1962) is a former 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. His position was scrum-half. He is probably best remembered for winning the

1991 Rugby World Cup The 1991 Rugby World Cup was the second edition of the Rugby World Cup, and was jointly hosted by England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France: at the time, the five European countries who participated in the Five Nations Championship. This was ...

with his team against England. He now works at Taurus Funds Management, appears as a TV rugby commentator on UK Sky Sports and is the chairman of the

New South Wales Rugby Union The New South Wales Rugby Union, or NSWRU, is the governing body for the sport of rugby union within most of the state of New South Wales in Australia. It is a member and founding union of Rugby Australia. Within Australia it is considered ...

Early life

He attended

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 ...

(1974–1979) and St Andrew's College within the University of Sydney. Not selected for the First XV at Newington, Farr-Jones played his early first grade rugby for Sydney University and worked as a lawyer when rugby was an amateur sport.

Rugby

Selected for the 1984 tour of Europe, he made his international début 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 som ...

on 3 November 1984 v

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 ...

Twickenham Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boro ...

, which Australia won 19-3 and quickly established himself as a regular in the test side from then on, scoring his first try in the final test against Scotland. After playing in the 1986

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 ...

series win 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, ...

, he played in the inaugural

Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb ...

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

and a year later was named Australian captain, at the age of 25. By this stage he was known as one part of Australia's "holy trinity" (the other two being David Campese and

Michael Lynagh Michael Patrick Thomas Lynagh, AM (born 25 October 1963) is an Australian former rugby union player who played mainly as a fly-half. Lynagh represented Australia from 1984 to 1995, playing at both inside centre and fly half. Lynagh was capped ...

). Indeed, of Campese's then world record 64 international tries, Farr-Jones had a hand in 46 of them. His captaincy started well enough with a two test home series win against England but Australia were well beaten in the 1988 Bledisloe and in 1989 lost the series to the British Lions. His temperament under pressure was questioned, though he was the subject of particularly nasty and provocative foul by opposite number Robert Jones, who in an effort to unsettle him, stamped a studded boot onto the top of Farr-Jones' right foot, which had recently been injured. More pressure followed in 1990 after the Wallabies were down 2–0 in the Bledisloe series it seemed certain he would lose the captaincy but the side won the final test 21–9 in Wellington and he celebrated with a naked swim in Wellington Harbour. The 1991 Bledisloe series was closely fought, ending in a tie and the Wallabies arrived in the British Isles in good form for the World Cup. He carried a knee injury into the tournament and was rested for the pool game against

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); ...

and substituted in the quarter-final midway through the second-half with what looked like a serious injury. After that nail biting finish he was back for the semi-final against New Zealand and the final, won by Australia, of which he said "We had to tackle till our shoulders were red raw just to keep them out". He was also instrumental in 1992 for the Wallabies, with wins over the

in the Bledisloe Cup and 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 ...

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

, a win that ended doubts over the Wallabies claim to be the best team in the world. He briefly retired from the sport at this stage but was persuaded back for the final two homes tests against South Africa in 1993, after Australia lost the opening match in the series. Farr-Jones was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

63 times for Australia, including 36 as captain (then a world record), and scored nine tries. During his career, he formed a world record half-back combination with

of 47 tests together.

Personal life

Farr-Jones is a self-described "praying" Christian and speaks publicly about his faith. He is married with four children. The Liberal Party of Australia considered asking Farr-Jones to stand as their candidate in a potential byelection in the marginal parliamentary

Division of Wentworth The Division of Wentworth is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. History The division was proclaimed in 1900 and was one of the original 65 divisions contested at the first federal election. The division is nam ...

Honours

* 1992 Australia Day Honours:

Member of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Go ...

(AM) in recognition of service to the sport of Rugby Union football. * 2001:

Centenary Medal The Centenary Medal is an award which was created by the Australian Government in 2001. It was established to commemorate the centenary of the Federation of Australia and to recognise "people who made a contribution to Australian society or g ...

for service to Australian society through the sport of Rugby Union

Awards

* 1999: Inducted into the

International Rugby Hall of Fame The International Rugby Hall of Fame (IRHOF) was a hall of fame for rugby union. It was created in 1997 in New Zealand and is run as a charitable trust with an address at Chiswick in London. Most of the trustees are also inductees. IRHOF acc ...

* 2008: Inducted into 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 ...

Hall of Fame * 2011: Inducted into the

IRB Hall of Fame The World Rugby Hall of Fame (formerly the IRB Hall of Fame) recognises special achievement and contribution to the sport of rugby union. The World Rugby Hall of Fame covers players, coaches, administrators, match officials, institutions and other ...

alongside all other Rugby World Cup-winning captains and head coaches from the tournament's inception in 1987 through 2007 (minus the previously inducted

John Eales John Eales AM (born 27 June 1970) is an Australian former rugby union player and the most successful captain in the history of Australian rugby. In 1999, he became one of the first players to win multiple Rugby World Cups. Early life Eales ...

)

References

External links

1991 World Cup on BBC SportSporting Heroes page 1Sporting Heroes page 2Sporting Heroes page 3Sporting Heroes page 4
{{DEFAULTSORT:Farr-Jones, Nick Australian rugby union players Australia international rugby union players Australian rugby union captains Rugby union scrum-halves World Rugby Hall of Fame inductees Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees People educated at Newington College Members of the Order of Australia Living people 1962 births Barbarian F.C. players Rugby union players from Sydney