Matthew Coleman Burke (born 26 March 1973) is an Australian former international
rugby union
Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...
player and sport presenter on Sydney's
''10 News First''.
Burke was a goalkicker and regular try-scorer 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 ...
who contributed to the team's victories in the
1999 Rugby World Cup
The 1999 Rugby World Cup () was the fourth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial international rugby union championship. It was the first Rugby World Cup to be held in the sport's History of rugby union#The professional era, professional era.
Four a ...
, multiple
Bledisloe Cup
The Bledisloe Cup is an annual rugby union competition 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 varied, as has the n ...
s and Australia's sole test series win against the
British & Irish Lions
The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England national rugby union team, England, Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland, Scotland national rugby union team, Scotland, and ...
in 2001.
When he retired from international rugby in 2004 he was the leading points scorer in the multinational
Super Rugby
Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...
Competition. He is the most-capped fullback and the second highest scorer for Australia in
Test
Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to:
* Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities
Arts and entertainment
* ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film
* ''Test'' (2014 film) ...
rugby.
Early life
Burke grew up in
Carlingford, New South Wales
Carlingford () is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Carlingford is north-west of the Sydney central business district in the Local government in Australia, local government area of City of Parramatta. Carlingford si ...
, and attended at St Gerard Majella Catholic Primary School, Carlingford and
St. Joseph's College, Hunters Hill. He was selected for the
Australian Schoolboys
The Australian Schoolboys refer to junior teams that represent Australia in various sports. The name is mainly used in rugby league, rugby union and baseball. Other popular team sports in Australia such as cricket, basketball, association footbal ...
team in 1990 and toured with the teams to the United Kingdom and Ireland. He played his club rugby with
Eastwood and maintained his association with the club throughout his career.
Rugby career
Burke progressed to the Australian Under 21s team in 1992 and 1993 at the same time as playing at the
Hong Kong Sevens
The Hong Kong Sevens ( zh, t=香港國際七人欖球賽, link=no) is a rugby sevens tournament held annually in Hong Kong on a weekend in late March or early April. Considered the premier tournament on the World Rugby Sevens Series competiti ...
in 1992 and the
Rugby World Cup Sevens
Rugby World Cup Sevens (RWCS) was the former quadrennial world championship of rugby sevens, a variant of rugby union. Organised by World Rugby, it consisted of men's and women's tournaments, and was the highest level of competition in the sport ...
in 1993. He made his Test debut in 1993 when he played in the third Test against the South African
Springboks
The South Africa national rugby union team, commonly known as the Springboks (colloquially the Boks, Bokke or Amabhokobhoko) is the country's national team governed by the South African Rugby Union. The Springboks play in green and gold jersey ...
.
Bledisloe Cup and early Wallabies years
In the national team for two years as the starting fullback and goal-kicker, Burke gained early attention for scoring arguably one of the most impressive tries in Bledisloe Cup history during the second match of the 1996 tournament, held on 27 July at Brisbane's
Lang Park
Brisbane Stadium (Lang Park), currently known as Suncorp Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium in the suburb of Milton, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Nicknamed The Cauldron, it is a three-tiered rectangular sporting st ...
. After gathering a low pass from felled teammate
Richard Tombs
Richard Tombs (born 5 January 1968) is an Australian former professional rugby union player who played as a centre.
Tombs was born in Te Kūiti, New Zealand and educated at The Armidale School, New South Wales, Australia. He toured Britain with ...
(from a standing start from his own 22-metre line), Burke dodged a total of six defenders culminating with a 'dummy pass' to another teammate
Ben Tune
Ben Tune (born 28 December 1976) is a former Australian rugby union player. He played most of his rugby career on the wing but later switched to outside centre.
Early career
Tune was born in Brisbane and educated at St Paul's School, Bald Hil ...
– allowing him to cover approximately 75 metres to score a try. The try put Australia ahead 16–9 at half time. Whilst the All Blacks would win with a last minute try to Frank Bunce – this game is particularly remembered for Burke's try.
In 1997, Burke was excluded from the Wallabies by a groin strain suffered during the domestic season and he was temporarily replaced by
Stephen Larkham
Stephen Larkham (born 29 May 1974) is a retired Australians, Australian rugby union professional player, currently in the role of head coach for Brumbies. He spent his career with the Brumbies (rugby), Brumbies in Super Rugby, for whom he playe ...
; then also a goal-kicking fullback. However he returned in time for the first Bledisloe Cup match in 1998, at the
Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as the 'G, is a sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the Lis ...
where he scored all 24 (2 tries, 1 conversion and 4 penalties) of the Wallabies points against New Zealand. It is an individual point-scoring world record against the All Blacks – which still stands. Australia had not beaten the All Blacks for four years in a single game up to that point and this heralded not only an Australian comeback, but an unprecedented five-year domination of the tournament.
Goal-kicking and shoulder injury
Burke was considered one of the finest test goal-kickers of his day – second, perhaps, to contemporary rival New Zealand kicker
Andrew Mehrtens
Andrew Philip Mehrtens (born 28 April 1973) is a New Zealand former rugby union player. He was regarded as a top first five-eighth, having played first for Canterbury in 1993, before being selected for the All Blacks (New Zealand's national ...
. At a time before it became common in test rugby, Burke was one of the few goal-kickers able to take successful penalty attempts from beyond the half-way line. Yet he was known to have clusters of missed goal-kicking attempts. In the third match of the 1998 Bledisloe Cup, he missed three straightforward kicking attempts in the first half – before being relieved of kicking duties under instruction from Australian Captain
John Eales
John Anthony Eales (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
E ...
in the second half (being in fact relieved of the goal-kicking by Eales himself).
In the dying minutes of that particular march, he gained some measure of redemption by scoring a match-winning try but was also afflicted by a serious shoulder injury – sidelining him for the better part of the next year.
Rugby World Cup 1999
After undergoing surgery on the affected shoulder, Burke delayed his comeback to the domestic Rugby season, in an attempt to right himself for the 1999 Rugby World Cup. As a result, Burke faced some criticism for NSW's subsequent poor performance in the Super 12 competition that year and also caused tension between himself and NSW Coach Matt Williams. At test level, he was being relieved by emerging rival
Chris Latham, at the fullback position. Despite making it back in the squad in time to contribute to the
1999 Rugby World Cup
The 1999 Rugby World Cup () was the fourth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial international rugby union championship. It was the first Rugby World Cup to be held in the sport's History of rugby union#The professional era, professional era.
Four a ...
victory, it has been speculated that this injury affected his counter-attacking playing style and future fitness.
As part of the campaign to ''"Bring back Bill"'', as the starting Wallaby
fullback and primary goal-kicker in the 1999 Rugby World Cup, he scored the majority of Australia's points in the last two games to help secure victory
[ – 24 points against in the Rugby World Cup semi-final and 25 points against in the grand final. Earlier in 1999, in an echo of the previous year at the MCG, he individually kicked 23 (1 conversion and 7 penalties) points against the All Blacks at ]Stadium Australia
Stadium Australia, currently known as Accor Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium located in the suburb of Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The stadium, which is sometimes referred to as Sydney Ol ...
.[
]
Selection battles with Chris Latham
After the 1999 World Cup, Burke had become plagued by ongoing injuries which were severely limiting his recovery and return to form. While his goal kicking and fairly regular try-scoring had saved Australia in many games; his injuries would soon take their toll. Queensland Reds
The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team based in Brisbane for the Australian state of Queensland that competes in the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996, they were a representative team selected from the rugby union ...
fullback Chris Latham was soon competing with him for Wallabies selection and Latham was the favoured Australian fullback in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup. This began the twilight phase of Burke's career where he was switched between various back-line positions before intermittently being recalled to starting fullback. Latham, who had performed strongly at Super Rugby
Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...
level began his test career with many costly defensive errors at fullback in 2000 and 2001– which initially helped to preserve Burke's place at the number 15 jersey.
Lions series 2001
Burke regained his starting fullback position for the Wallabies in the second test of the 2001 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia
The 2001 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia was a series of matches played by the British & Irish Lions rugby union team in Australia.
The Lions squad was captain (sport), captained by Martin Johnson (rugby union), Martin Johnson, the firs ...
, after Latham was dropped for a poor performance in the first game of the series. This was Burke's first start in the number 15 jersey since the 1999 Rugby World Cup and he ended-up playing a starring role in the Australian comeback in the final two games. In the deciding third game, both sides drew on tries and conversions but his five penalties against three by future Newcastle Falcons
Newcastle Falcons is a rugby union team that play in Premiership Rugby, England's highest division of rugby union.
The club was established in 1877 as the Gosforth Football Club. Around 1882 the club merged with the Northumberland Football Cl ...
teammate Jonny Wilkinson
Jonathan Peter Wilkinson, (born 25 May 1979) is an English former rugby union player. A fly-half, he played for Newcastle Falcons and French side Toulon and represented England and the British & Irish Lions. He is particularly known for scori ...
left the hosts 29–23 winners at Sydney's Stadium Australia. To date, it is the only Australian series victory over the combined multi-nation British Lions. He was also part of the Wallabies team which beat the New Zealand All-blacks for the first time in 2001 at their traditional stronghold at Carisbrook, Dunedin.
Positional switch to outside centre
Burke was made to switch positions when playing for the Wallabies for most of the remainder of his career – at first to wing, and then to outside centre during a period of continual experimentation with the Wallabies back-line. This was initially done to accommodate both Chris Latham at test level, and for newly converted former professional rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...
footballer Mat Rogers
Mathew Steve Rogers (born 1 February 1976) is an Australian former professional rugby league and rugby union footballer who played in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. He played both codes at the highest level, becoming a dual-code international. He ...
at the state level for the NSW Waratahs (Rogers later playing fullback for the Wallabies as well while Latham was either benched or playing at wing). Burke was considered versatile enough to satisfactorily fulfill these roles whilst now primarily considered a specialist kicker. Many commentators said that he was restricted from playing more freely in a counter-attacking role, while not in his favoured fullback position. Burke himself has stated that he always considered himself a fullback and that the decision to switch him to outside centre was a mistake.
Complicating matters for national selectors, the Australian National Rugby Team now became saturated with a flurry of traded National Rugby League
The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...
'convert' players ready to replace ageing back-line first generation professional players such as Burke (Rugby Union was only made a professional sport in 1996). Burke was otherwise retained as vice-captain and goal-kicker for the 2002 season. That year, he famously kicked a penalty after full-time to win the Bledisloe Cup in windy conditions at Stadium Australia – one of the last times his influence was crucial to the outcome of a match (and incidentally, the last time Australia held the Bledisloe Cup as of 2024).
Rugby World Cup 2003
In 2003 he was given back the starting fullback position, one last time – but ultimately did not perform well enough to retain it. Midway through the 2003 Rugby World Cup
The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup and was won by England national rugby union team, England. Originally planned to be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispu ...
he was axed from the starting line-up following a narrow pool win over Ireland (17–16); a match in which he was substituted after 64 minutes. He was replaced by former professional rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...
footballer Mat Rogers
Mathew Steve Rogers (born 1 February 1976) is an Australian former professional rugby league and rugby union footballer who played in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. He played both codes at the highest level, becoming a dual-code international. He ...
, which drew mixed reactions and he would be relegated to the bench for the rest of his test career. By this time Mat Rogers was already the starting goal-kicker (after being brought on the field as a substitute in the world cup pool game against Namibia, Burke was signaled that Rogers was to continue as primary kicker by the coaching staff after attempting to take the ball from him for an attempt at goal) and he, along with Chris Latham, had finally emerged as the two preferred fullbacks. Future wallabies captain Stirling Mortlock
Stirling Austin Mortlock (born 20 May 1977) is an Australian former professional rugby union player. He has scored more than 1,000 points in Super Rugby, and nearly 500 test points for the Wallabies. Mortlock is a former Wallaby, Melbourne Rebel ...
had also simultaneously become the leading outside centre. Further diminishing the ageing Burke's place on the team was the fact that there were now at least four other recognised goal-kickers in the team – Mortlock, Rogers, Matt Giteau
Matthew James Giteau (born 29 September 1982) is an Australian rugby union professional player who plays for the San Diego Legion of Major League Rugby (MLR).
Giteau plays as a Rugby union positions#Utility players, utility back. His usual posi ...
and Elton Flatley
Elton Flatley (born 7 May 1977, Tamworth, New South Wales) is an Australian former international rugby union footballer. He played for the Queensland Reds.
Career
Flatley was educated at St. Joseph's Nudgee College where he was signed into ...
– who all admirably performed as replacements to Burke. However Australia, to date, has never again had a regular goal kicker with a similar tenure.
Final year with the Waratahs
In 2004, any hope of rekindling his international career was over when he was controversially ''completely'' dropped from his state team, the NSW Waratahs. While he was injured early in that Super 12 season – he still managed to score 62 points from his first six games; placing him ahead of Andrew Mehrtens
Andrew Philip Mehrtens (born 28 April 1973) is a New Zealand former rugby union player. He was regarded as a top first five-eighth, having played first for Canterbury in 1993, before being selected for the All Blacks (New Zealand's national ...
in the all-time points lead of the Super 12 (now Super Rugby
Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...
) competition. Yet 'inconsistent performance' was cited as the key reason behind the axing. Others have speculated his age as the reason for Burke's dumping – this is questionable considering NSW simultaneously attempted to 'convert' footballer Andrew Johns
Andrew Gary Johns (born 19 May 1974), also known by the nickname Joey, is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He is considered one of the greatest rugby league players of all time. Johns ...
from rival code league
League or The League may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band
* ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football
* ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...
, despite Johns' and Burke's similar ages. NSW Coach (and former NSW and Australian teammate) Ewen McKenzie
Ewen James Andrew McKenzie (born 21 June 1965) is an Australian professional rugby union coach and a former international rugby player. He played for Australia national rugby union team, Australia's World Cup winning team in 1991 and earned 51 ...
's decision to drop Burke drew ire from many in the union fraternity, including Phil Kearns and Simon Poidevin
Simon Paul Poidevin (born 31 October 1958) is a former Australian rugby union player who played as a flanker. Poidevin made his Test debut for Australia against Fiji during the 1980 tour of Fiji. He was a member of the Wallabies side that def ...
, who accused McKenzie of disloyalty and being shortsighted.
In a sign of continued bad blood between the two, McKenzie would later ridicule suggestions that Burke would be recalled to the Australian Wallabies in 2007 (see below); describing it as return of the "superannuation crew". Burke responded by deriding McKenzie's apparent "ignorance of British Club Football" – where he was playing at that time. However, Burke would later endorse McKenzie for Wallabies coach prior to his appointment in late 2013.
Despite his expected retirement, Australian Coach Eddie Jones described Burke's axing from the NSW squad as an "independent event" – indicating some use for Burke at test level. Indeed, Burke did appear intermittently as a substitute in various roles, including fullback, for the Wallabies in the 2004 season. He played his last international test for the Wallabies on 21 August 2004 against South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
, coming off the bench for the final six minutes – where he missed a penalty attempt (Australia lost 23 – 19). In 2006, in his last international appearance, he was starting fullback for the World XV
A World XV (or World 15) is a rugby union team organised on an unofficial, ''ad hoc'' basis and typically composed of invited players from various countries. Several World XVs have been arranged by various bodies since the 1970s, often to take pa ...
Rugby team against the South African Springboks
The South Africa national rugby union team, commonly known as the Springboks (colloquially the Boks, Bokke or Amabhokobhoko) is the country's national team governed by the South African Rugby Union. The Springboks play in green and gold jersey ...
for their first 2006 game – contributing 17 points (5 pen, 1 con) in their 27 to 30 points loss.
Playing in England
After losing his Super Rugby
Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...
playing contract with the NSW Waratahs, Burke was offered contracts by eight different clubs – including other teams in the Super Rugby
Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...
competition. Interested teams reportedly included the Queensland Reds
The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team based in Brisbane for the Australian state of Queensland that competes in the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996, they were a representative team selected from the rugby union ...
and teams in New Zealand, South Africa, Italy, France and England. Wallaby coach Eddie Jones also kept the door open for further test duty depending on the availability/fitness of certain players for the Wallabies tour of the UK in late 2004, but Burke contradicted this statement by confirming his retirement and stating it was unlikely that he would play test rugby again.
Burke joined the Newcastle Falcons
Newcastle Falcons is a rugby union team that play in Premiership Rugby, England's highest division of rugby union.
The club was established in 1877 as the Gosforth Football Club. Around 1882 the club merged with the Northumberland Football Cl ...
in the English Premiership. Here he has played alongside former English rival Jonny Wilkinson (his opposite kicker in Lions tour of Australia). He has also won the 'Player of the Year' at the Falcons and was named as captain of the side. In February 2007, he obtained a British passport (while retaining Australian citizenship), qualifying through his England-born mother. His main reason for doing so was Guinness Premiership
Premiership Rugby, officially known as Gallagher Premiership Rugby, or the Gallagher Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is an English professional rugby union competition, consisting of 10 clubs, and is the top division of the English rugby u ...
regulations prohibiting teams from having more than one non-European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
citizen on the field at any time. This enabled the Falcons to play him at the same time as New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
prop Joe McDonnell.
In 2007, there was again brief speculation that Burke would return as starting fullback for the Wallabies in the Tri-nations and Bledisloe Cup tournament; which would lead up to the world cup. Chris Latham was recovering from knee reconstruction and Mat Rogers had since returned to Rugby League. He was even formally approached by new Wallabies coach John Connolly regarding his availability for that season. Burke rejected this, citing commitments to his Newcastle side in the UK – but did state he would consider another approach regarding the 2007 Rugby World Cup
The 2007 Rugby World Cup () was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition organised by the International Rugby Board. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by F ...
. Burke was not ultimately approached, as Latham had sufficiently recovered. Had Burke come back to play for Australia – it would have set a new precedent as the ARU have stood firm in only considering Australia-based talent for Test selection since the game went professional in 1996.
Retirement
In May 2008 Burke announced his immediate retirement from playing after failing to recover from a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee suffered the previous October.
Legacy in the game
Owing to Matt Burke's lasting impact in the New South Wales jersey, the Waratahs' Player of the Year is now awarded the ''Matt Burke Trophy''.
In addition to being a leading fullback and playing 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 som ...
for over a decade, Burke's third year as New South Wales Waratahs
The New South Wales Waratahs ( or ;), often referred to as the Waratahs, are an Australian professional rugby union team based in Sydney that represents the majority of New South Wales in the Super Rugby Pacific competition. The Waratahs play t ...
captain saw him become the first player in the history of Waratah rugby to play over 100 games.
Burke is still Australia's most capped fullback, having played 54 of his 81 Tests in that position. After breaking 1000 career points for NSW in 2003, he has scored 878 Test points for Australia. In Bledisloe Cup contests, he still holds the individual record for total test points against New Zealand (176 points in 17 Tests).
Burke was voted starting fullback in the ''Wallaby Team of the Decade
To celebrate 10 years of professional rugby union
Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sp ...
'' which celebrated the first ten years of professional rugby union, spanning 1996 to 2005.
Post-rugby sports and media career
Since his retirement, Burke has opened a sports business that specialises in skills sessions for children. In early 2013, Burke joined Network Ten's coverage of the 2013 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia
The 2013 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia was a rugby union tour during June and July 2013. The British & Irish Lions played ten matches - a three-Test match (rugby union), test series against Australia national rugby union team, Austra ...
, and is an expert commentator for Australia's coverage of the 2013 Rugby Championship
The 2013 The Rugby Championship, Rugby Championship, known as ''The SABMiller brands#Castle brewery, Castle Rugby Championship'' in South Africa, ''The Investec Bank, Investec Rugby Championship'' in New Zealand, ''The Castrol#Products, Castrol Ed ...
.
In October 2013, Burke was appointed as sport presenter on ''10 News First'' in Sydney
Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
, after Brad McEwan
Brad McEwan (born 28 April 1971) is an Australian television presenter and sports journalist.
McEwan has previously been a sport presenter on the Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne editions of ''10 News First'' and is best known for his hosting du ...
moved to Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
to present sport for ''10 News First''. Between September 2020 and September 2024, Burke also presented sport on the Brisbane bulletin, following a major restructure of 10's news brand.
In October 2024, it was announced that Burke would depart Network 10 at the end of the year.
Honours
* Held 22 Australian Rugby records and 7 International records when he retired
** Most test points in a calendar year (189 points: 6 tries, 27 conversions, 35 penalty goals – 1996)
** Most test points against NZ in one match (24 points – 1998)
** Most test points against the British Lions in one match (25 points – 2001)
** Most test points against England in one match(22 points – 1998)
** Most test points against France in one match (25 points – 1999 Rugby World Cup Final)
* Was the 4th highest international points scorer at time of retirement—see List of leading Rugby union Test point scorers
* Twentieth most capped international of all time at the time of his retirement
* World XV team (2006)
* Rugby World Cup
The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport.
The tournament is administer ...
Win – Australia (1999)
* Barbarians
A barbarian is a person or tribe of people that is perceived to be primitive, savage and warlike. Many cultures have referred to other cultures as barbarians, sometimes out of misunderstanding and sometimes out of prejudice.
A "barbarian" may ...
(1999, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005)
* Wallaby of the Year (1996)
* Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper in ...
Player of the Year (1996, 98)
Notes
References
External links
*
Archived AUS Matt Burke Player Profile
Australian Wallabies
Archived NSW Matt Burke Player Profile
NSW Rugby
Sydney Morning Herald
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burke, Matt
1973 births
Living people
Australian rugby union players
Australia international rugby union players
New South Wales Waratahs players
Rugby union fullbacks
Newcastle Falcons players
Barbarian F.C. players
People educated at St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill
Australian television newsreaders and news presenters
Australian Catholic University alumni
Australian rugby union commentators
Rugby union players from Sydney
1995 Rugby World Cup players
1999 Rugby World Cup players
2003 Rugby World Cup players
Eastwood Rugby Club players
Australian expatriate rugby union players in England