Question: Name the best Australian Schoolboys side to leave these shores and go on a try-happy roll of undefeated success through the British Isles?
Before you can say Ella-Ella-Ella, most of you will have locked in the 1977-78 side that has entered folklore as perhaps the greatest schoolboys side of any football code.
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It’s a fair shout when league legend Wally Lewis couldn’t force a spot in every international and 10 future Wallabies were nurtured on that tour...the three Ella brothers, Michael O’Connor, Tony Melrose, Chris Roche, Michael Hawker, Tony D’Arcy, Dom Vaughan and the late Shane Nightingale.
Some judges quietly beg to differ when saluting another Australian Schoolboys side as at least their equal.
At a Friday luncheon in Brisbane, a toast will be raised to celebrate 40 years since the 1981-82 Australian Schoolboys embarked on their own 10-match unbeaten rampage on the other side of the world.
That group scored 48 tries and conceded just one while racking up wins over Ireland (24-0), Scotland (34-0) and Welsh Youth (13-9) in the three internationals.
COVID-19 restrictions unfortunately scuttled plans for a grand reunion in Sydney last month. Brisbane-based duo Ian Williams and Michael Agnew will accept the plaudits for the whole squad at the Australian Schools Rugby Foundation Luncheon.
The roll call of stars produced on that tour, with Grand Slam tour accolades and Bledisloe Cups to come, is impressive.
Again, 10 Wallabies...Michael Lynagh, Cameron Lillicrap, Steve Tuynman, Mark Hartill, Tim Kava, brothers Brad and Matt Burke, David Knox, Brett Papworth and the pacy Williams.
And that list never includes one name who might well have reached that level.
Standout lock Colin Scotts was spotted by a US college scout at the first stop of that tour in California and followed a path to the NFL with the St Louis Cardinals.
“Ours was an extraordinary team and we knew we had a fair act to follow as the next to tour after the Ellas, Wally, Michael O’Connor and Co,” said Papworth, who would step and dazzle as a centre in 16 Tests before being lost to league.
“Our captain Steve Tuynman was something else in the backrow. He was on a Wallabies tour to New Zealand the following year at just 19 (in 1982).
“We’ll never know how good Colin Scotts would have been as a rugby player.
“Having Brad Burke and ‘Noddy’ Lynagh inside you in the backs and Matt Burke outside made it a terrific fun in the backline too.”
Papworth’s vivid memories wander beyond two tries against Scotland on a rare clear, crisp day at Murrayfield to being billeted in Dublin.
“We played Ireland Schools on New Year’s Day 1982 so I’d sat down to an Irish family Christmas with five potato dishes,” Papworth said with a laugh.
Williams recalled going to Midnight Mass in Dublin on Christmas Eve with his Irish family hosts.
“For the Irish, it was very convenient to have a pub next to the church. The pub closed at 10 minutes to midnight, we found our seats and the collection plate was passed around,” Williams said.
“It was quickly filled but before it could reach us someone’s ball-handling skills let them down, the plate slipped and hundreds of pounds in coins spilled across the church floor.”
Williams said the accolades for the young Tuynman as a ball-runner and tail gunner at lineouts, who won a mountain of ball, were all deserved.
“As a schoolboy footballer he was probably the best in the world,” Williams said.
“I’d say our forwards in 1981-82 were stronger than the 1977-78 side when you look at Lillicrap and Hartill in the front-row, as two future Wallabies, Kava and Scotts in the second-row and our great backrow.
“It was a special team with an unbelievable core.
“The coal mines and steelworks were still open in those days so the Welsh were big, strong guys and an Under-20s side so we did very well to win that one 13-9 in Neath as schoolboys.”
Flyhalf Lynagh's classy best was reserved for Murrayfield...a try and five goals as man-of-the-match. He was scoring 21 points at the same ground for the Wallabies just three years later.
Tuynman was less dominant as a public speaker. One line from a thank you address over lunch at a Scottish school in still thrown back at him 40 years later by his old team-mates.
“Well, lunch today wasn’t anything very special but I guess anything for free is good,” Tuynman said.
The phrase “anything for free is good” is rolled out any time a group of the ‘81-82 tour squad get together.
Lillicrap said being snowed in for days when they reached Wales was part of the making of the tour. The players bonded more tightly, worked hard at what they could do indoors with lineouts and conditioning and enjoyed their laughs.
“We were billeted at St Athan RAF base near Cardiff. There was a huge blizzard and we were snowed in with drifts right up past the window. Never ones to let the opportunity of cheap colonial labour slip by, the RAF pressganged us into clearing the runways,” Scotts wrote.
“Not surprising, we broke out one night and walked miles through a blizzard to the nearest pub. Our team manager nearly passed out when he heard as we could have so easily got lost in the snow.”
That recollection is from Scott’s 2002 book, All Balls. Find a copy. It’s a cracker and he details the fondest of his memories from the tour.
The boys had played against a motley US Under-20s-style team on campus at UCLA to open the tour. It was a romp of 80-odd to nil but the assistant head coach of the University of Hawaii football program just happened to be watching.
It changed Scotts’ life.
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His lock partner on tour was Kava, the Randwick legend who went on two Wallabies tours in the ‘90s.
“Tim would rub lots of grease around his head and, as it melted, he’d look more like something from beyond the tomb than a schoolboy. Scary stuff,” Scotts wrote.
The 10-match schedule does seem short but it was never meant to be. A blizzard forced two matches in Wales to be cancelled and the English were evasive and never organised an England Schools fixture for fear of being thrashed.
Rob Clarke, the sharp hirsute fullback who would become chief executive of Rugby Australia, had a kick charged down when the only try of the tour was conceded in a midweek match in Exeter.
Coach Al Thomas recalled the tour fondly: “This was an exceptional team that played fast, attacking rugby combined with fierce defence despite some atrocious conditions.
“It was an honour to coach them. In 1982, the team was recognised as ‘The Junior Australian Team of the Year’ by the Confederation of Australian Sport.”
At the luncheon, two Australian Schoolboy Merit teams were announced that embraced more than 30 schools from three states and the ACT.
Australia A team:
Reeve Smith (Waverley College, NSW), Noah Hartley (Marist College Emerald, Qld), Trevor King (Downlands College, Qld), Sam Tapner (Barker College, NSW), Tom Twaddell (Villanova College, Qld), Stuart Tualima (Brisbane State High, Qld), Will Johnstone (The Kings School, NSW), Baden Godfrey (St Edmunds College, ACT), Ben Keogh (Marist College Canberra, ACT), Finn Prass (Sunshine Coast Grammar, Qld), Ryley Bierton (Brisbane State High, Qld), Matius Jensen (Marist College Canberra, ACT), Albert Dynevor (Downlands College, Qld), Sam Taber (St Joseph’s College Hunters Hill, NSW), Shane Wilcox (St Edmunds College, ACT), Aidan Taylor (Brisbane State High, Qld), Koji Goulding (King’s Christian College, Qld), AJ Preketes (Waverley College, NSW), Spencer Smallacombe (The Rockhampton Grammar School, Qld), Lolo Sekona (Brisbane State High, Qld), Zachary Davidson (St Pius X College, NSW), Ezra Paulo (Epping Boys High, NSW), Gus Godwin (Villanova College, Qld)
Presidents XV
Mark Tiuru-Beni (Murrumbidgee Regional High School, NSW), Lulu Paea (St Edwards College, NSW), Jake Wentzel (Trinity Christian School, ACT), Harry Williams (Marist College Canberra, ACT), Ben Morton (St Ignatius College Riverview, NSW), Tim Sekel (St Ignatius College Riverview, NSW), Douglas Kennar (Brisbane State High, Qld), Matthias Maugatai (Brisbane State High, Qld), Tom Segger (Iona College, Qld), Sean Howlett (Coombabah State High, Qld), Aaron Dimovitich (Waverley College, NSW), Josh Radcliffe (Somerset College, Qld), Siteni Taukamo (Newington College, NSW), Jasper Benson (Brisbane State High, Qld), Blair Pengelly (Mt Waverley Secondary College, Vic), Hugh Bell (Newington College, NSW), Kreedance Locke (Downlands College, Qld), Jack Morrison (St Stanislaus College, NSW), Paino Hehea (St Francis Xavier College, Vic), Tom Pattison (Wheelers Hills Secondary College, Vic), Jack Hussey (North Lakes State College, Qld), Tai Dowling (Emmanuel College, Qld), Mitch Lehmann (Matthew Flinders Anglican College, Qld)
