Rugby Articles 4

A Symbol for the Ages

When John Eales kicked off as captain of AustraliaÕs Rugby team in 1996, success was no shoe-in. The team had not long before stumbled badly at the World Cup in South Africa, they had lost a string of champion players, and they were wrestling with a new professional environment that required much change.

The early experiences were not happy. Big defeats at the hands of New Zealand and South Africa through 1996 and 1997 left the team floundering, and although Eales was missing from both of those calamities, questions that had been on the tip of tongues since his appointment were being asked. Was John Eales just too nice a bloke to be a successful captain? Too quiet? Too understated?

Move the hour-glass along five years. Toutai Kefu surges at the line in the last minute of a game against New Zealand at Stadium Australia and Eales exits international Rugby with the Tri- Nations Cup as his final prize. Four years of Bledisloe Cup success already is behind him, as is the 1999 World Cup triumph, the 2000 Tri-Nations Cup, a series win against the British and Irish Lions, and victory over anybody else who happened by. A world champion team and a world champion captain.

Move the hour-glass along another 10 years or so. Will Eales be the most collectable of the Rugby collectables . . . the enduring symbol of perhaps the greatest period in the history of Australian Rugby. The Sporting Collector spoke to him about it.

"Well, I have certainly signed a lot of stuff," Eales concedes. "Do I have a sense of history about it. Well, I think it is great to have mementoes of significant events. And I think they assume their true value over time. "By value I donÕt mean monetary value. I mean real value. Value for what they represent."

The John Eales catalogue is certainly an impressive record of a golden period in Australian Rugby. Consider the list:

° Tamed - a series of 500 lithographs, signed by the Wallabies to commemorate a stunning victory over the Lions.

° The Miracle - a series of 500 lithographs, signed by the Wallabies, to mark the remarkable Bledisloe Cup triumph of 2000, sealed by a John Eales penalty goal on the stroke of fulltime.

° The Clean Sweep - a series of 200 lithographs struck to commemorate the three Test wins against New Zealand in 1998, and the rise of the current Australian team. These have sold out. ¥ Champions of the World lithograph - a series of 500 to celebrate the World Cup win in 1999, signed by the World Cup squad.

° World Champions Commemorative Wallaby jersey - a series of 100 signed by the team and sold out.

° World Champions Commemorative Gilbert match football - 100 only, signed by the team and sold out.

° Bledisloe 2000 Commemorative Wallaby Jersey - a series of 200 signed by the team and sold out.

° Wallabies v Lions Commemorative Wallaby jersey - a series of 200 signed by the team.

° Eales - Altitude - a Photoclassics release highlighting distinguished sports photography. 1000 released, signed by John Eales.

There are other collectables around to mark the Eales years at the very top of RugbyÕs tree.

As we went to press the John Eales biography written by leading Sydney journalist Peter FitzSimons had topped 60,000 sales and was still selling. In the sometimes difficult world of sports book publishing, that is stratospheric success. Eales is not unconscious of the impact of these things, though his innate humility shows through as he talks of them.

"Many years down the track I think the mementoes from these last few years in my experience will be very significant to me," he says. "They were golden years. "I have kept some bits and pieces. They are not showcased or anything, but they are there, and in time they will mean a great deal. Especially the important pieces. My first Test . . . the last Test . . . the World Cup. There are quite a few things in between that are going to be important to me, too. "I havenÕt kept a lot from other sports, although there are some. Mainly things I have been given. I donÕt know that you could call me a collector in the true sense, but I can certainly appreciate the value of collecting."

Eales says of his captaincy of the Wallabies that it was a job he grew into. A learning process that underlined the value of experience as the greatest of teachers. He was a cool head always, with an understated authority that taught his team the value of patience, persistence and discipline. Under Eales they developed an attitude that simply would not brook defeat. They were never beaten until the death . . . masters of the last minute win.

For Eales, collecting may well prove to be a learned art as well. As the centrepiece of so many collections, surely the temptation will come to cherish his own.

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