Phil Hardcastle (1919–1962) 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 ...

footballer and medical practitioner. A

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

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, ce ...

representative forward, he played five Test matches for Australia, one as captain.

Early life

Hardcastle was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and attended

The Scots College , motto_translation = O that we may be worthy of our forefathers , location = Bellevue Hill, Eastern Suburbs, Sydney , country = Australia , type = Independent single-sex primary a ...

in Sydney.Howell pp124 He undertook medical studies at

Sydney University The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's six ...

in the years immediately before and during

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 ...

and won university blues for rugby in 1937, 1939 and 1941.

Representative rugby career

His state representative debut was made 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 ...

in 1938. He was still playing for

and playing well when national representative fixtures restarted at the conclusion of World War II. He was selected on the first Australian post-war tour, the 1946

Wallaby A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized Macropodidae, 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 Taxonomy (biology), taxon ...

tour of New Zealand captained by

Bill McLean William Malcolm McLean (28 February 1918 – 9 December 1996) was an Australian soldier and a state and national representative rugby union player who captained the Wallabies in five Test matches immediately after World War II. Pre-war rug ...

. He played in three Tests and seven tour matches proving his capability as a durable tight forward, formidable in the ruck. In 1947 he captained New South Wales to a victory over the 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 ...

and was honoured with national captaincy in one of the Tests of that tour. He was vying against McLean for the tour captaincy of the 1947-48 Wallaby Tour and when Queensland won the interstate selection series that year, McLean was given the honour. Hardcastle played twenty-two matches on the tour including the final UK match against the Barbarians. He did not play in any Tests. He returned to the Test arena in 1949 playing against the New Zealand Māori in Sydney. His final representative appearance was for New South Wales in 1950 against the British Isles.

Playing style

Though a tall man Hardcastle was not a proficient jumper and often adopted spoiling tactics to prevent opposition locks getting above him in the line-out. The writer Howell toured and played alongside Hardcastle on the 1947-48 Tour and asserts that this habit led to various incidents when opposition forwards would get-square with Hardcastle to warn him off from holding them down in the jump. Howell also notes that Hardcastle had a lifelong stutter. This affected his ability to communicate quickly on-field but also led to an amusing incident on the 1947-48 tour when Hardcastle was nominated after the Swansea match to give the traditional visitor's response to the after-dinner speech. When tour manager

Arnold Tancred Arnold Joseph Tancred (30 October 1904 – 22 September 1963) was an Australian rugby union player, a state and national representative flanker. He was prominent in the meat industry in Australia with significant family business interests in ...

called upon "the esteemed Dr Phil Hardcastle" to reply, Hardcastle got to his feet and said ''"Gee-gee-gee-gentlemen, w-w-words f-f-fail me"'' and sat down.

Published references

* Howell, Max (2005) ''Born to Lead - Wallaby Test Captains'', Celebrity Books, Auckland NZ

Footnotes

External links

Phil Hardcastle record at StatsGuru
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hardcastle, Phil 1919 births 1962 deaths Australian rugby union captains Australian rugby union players Australia international rugby union players People educated at Scots College (Sydney) Rugby union locks Rugby union players from Buenos Aires