Colin Windon
Encyclopedia
Colin Windon was an Australia
n soldier and a state and national representative
rugby union
player who captained the Wallabies
in six Test matches in 1951. He is recognised as one of Australia's greatest players of the twentieth century and is an inductee to the Australian Rugby Union
Hall of Fame..
where was a mediocre rugby player in the lower grades. He showed promise as a young cricketer and from Grammar was selected in a Combined Schoolboy's representative side.
Colin's father Stan was a foundation member of the Coogee Surf Life Saving Club
and played rugby with the Randwick
club in Sydney. He passed his love of the game onto his sons and the elder Keith, played as a flanker for Australia in a war interrupted career between 1936 and 1946. Keith was a rare student of the game, a quality player whose best years were lost to the war. He was a star during the 1937 Springboks
tour of Australia. After captain Cyril Towers
had to leave the field, Keith moved to the centres and masterminded one of the great comebacks in Wallaby history. Keith was on the ill-fated 1939 Wallaby tour to England. The team docked at Southampton on the day war was declared and they returned to Australia without playing an international game. Keith Windon did manage to briefly resume his career after the war, touring to New Zealand with the 1946 Wallabies where his career ended. Seeing Keith play for Australia in 1937 at the Sydney Cricket Ground
inspired Colin to pursue his own rugby career.
Like his father, Col was active at Coogee Surf Club
, in the Coogee Amateur Swim Club and the Coogee Penguins Winter Swim Club. He was a national title winner at beach flags
.
in 1938 in fourth grade. The next year aged 18, he was playing first grade with the "Galloping Greens" and in that debut year he was equal-top scorer in the Sydney competition. Windon went on to play 98 first grade matches with the club.
He was a rugged, hard-tackling breakaway and a speedy, elusive runner with a notorious fend and a resultant gift for scoring tries. Howell (his teammate on the 1947-48 Wallaby tour) wrote that Windon always said his best coach was his brother Keith who schooled him in breakaway play. One of his dictums was always to look up while packing down in the scrums - to analyse the position of the opposition backs and to always run to the next line out and rest then.
on 18 December 1941 after basic training in Dubbo, Windon was posted to the 2/3 Infantry Battalion, 6th Division, and saw service in the Owen Stanley Range
s in Papua New Guinea
. He contracted malaria there and after convalescence in the Atherton Tablelands he returned to New Guinea in 1944 for hard jungle encounters in the Aitape-Wewak campaign
during 1945. Windon was a company
runner, the time-honoured military role of running messages from the front line to a command post, in his case under Japanese fire. He was discharged from the Army on 13 August 1946.
Col Windon debuted for Australia on the first post-war Wallaby tour of New Zealand in 1946 captained by Bill McLean
where his star began to rise. On that tour he played nine of the twelve games including both Tests. He scored two birlliant tries against the strong Wellington side.
He played twice for the New South Wales Waratahs
against the touring All Blacks
in 1947 and was selected in the Australian side that met them - a veritable selection trial for the nine month Wallaby tour of Europe and North America planned for later that year.
He was one of the first selected for the 1947-48 Australian rugby union tour of Europe and North America and played in twenty seven of the tour's thirty-six matches and scoring eight tries to be the third highest tour try scorer behind three-quarters Terry MacBride, Charlie Eastes and Trevor Allan
. He played in all five Tests of the tour and debuted as Australian captain in tour matches against Aberdeen and Leicester. He played eleven successive games at one stage of the tour. In the Test against England at Twickenham
he dominated the match and scored two tries including the game winner late in the second half when his punishing tackle on English pivot Tommy Kemp saw Kemp spill the ball and Windon outpace the English backline defence 50m to the try line breaking England's spirit and sealing the victory.
Following the success of the marathon tour he played three Tests against the visiting NZ Maori side in 1949 and also turned out for New South Wales against them. Then in 1949 he was selected as vice-captain to Trevor Allan
for another tour of New Zealand when Australia were victorious in winning the Bledisloe Cup
in a two Test series - the first time that feat was achieved away from home. Windon played in ten of the twelve tour matches, scoring eight tries including a try in each Test and captaining is country in a minor game against Manawatu-Horowhenua.
In 1952 he was selected for the domestic series against Fiji
and that year made his third tour of New Zealand playing in nine of ten games including both Tests. His final representative tour was made to South Africa
in 1953 although injury saw him make only six tour appearances.
Early in his retirement he coached at Randwick in a stint from 1954 to 1957.
In 1999, he was named in Australian Rugby's team of the century. In 2000, he was made a life member of the Sydney Cricket Ground
and a plaque there in the Walk of Honour commemorates his career. He was elected to Randwick
City Council's Sporting Hall of Fame and awarded an Australian Sports Medal for his achievements. He consistently features in top rugby player lists as the best breakaway in Australia's rugby history. In 2005 he was honored as one of the inaugural five inductees into the Australian Rugby Union
Hall of Fame. Upon his induction Australian Rugby Union
President Paul McLean referred to Windon as : "an electrifying talent and a try scoring machine".
His 1947 Wallaby tour teammate Sir Nicholas Shehadie
described him as follows: As back-row forwards go, he was the very best. A try-scoring machine, a superb attacker and with the speed of a three-quarter, the man they nicknamed 'Breeze' was simply peerless in supporting play.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n soldier and a state and national representative
Australia national rugby union team
The Australian national rugby union team is the representative side of Australia in rugby union. The national team is nicknamed the Wallabies and competes annually with New Zealand and South Africa in the Tri-Nations Series, in which they also contest the Bledisloe Cup with New Zealand and the...
rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
player who captained the Wallabies
Australia national rugby union team
The Australian national rugby union team is the representative side of Australia in rugby union. The national team is nicknamed the Wallabies and competes annually with New Zealand and South Africa in the Tri-Nations Series, in which they also contest the Bledisloe Cup with New Zealand and the...
in six Test matches in 1951. He is recognised as one of Australia's greatest players of the twentieth century and is an inductee to the Australian Rugby Union
Australian Rugby Union
The Australian Rugby Union is the governing body of rugby union in Australia. It was founded in 1949 and is a member of the International Rugby Board the sport's governing body. It consists of eight member unions, representing each state and territory...
Hall of Fame..
Early life and sporting family
Windon attended Randwick Public School before Sydney GrammarSydney Grammar School
Sydney Grammar School is an independent, non-denominational, selective, day school for boys, located in Darlinghurst, Edgecliff and St Ives, all suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
where was a mediocre rugby player in the lower grades. He showed promise as a young cricketer and from Grammar was selected in a Combined Schoolboy's representative side.
Colin's father Stan was a foundation member of the Coogee Surf Life Saving Club
Coogee Surf Life Saving Club
The Coogee Surf Life Saving Club is a foundation member of the surf lifesaving movement in Australia. It was founded in 1907 by a group of concerned locals and has a proud history of no lives being lost whilst its members have patrolled...
and played rugby with the Randwick
Randwick DRUFC
Randwick District Rugby Union Football Club, also known as the Galloping Greens, is an Australian rugby union club which competes in the Sydney grade competition. The club was formed in 1882 and since then has won 31 first grade premierships and seven Australian club championships...
club in Sydney. He passed his love of the game onto his sons and the elder Keith, played as a flanker for Australia in a war interrupted career between 1936 and 1946. Keith was a rare student of the game, a quality player whose best years were lost to the war. He was a star during the 1937 Springboks
South Africa national rugby union team
The South African national rugby union team are 2009 British and Irish Lions Series winners. They are currently ranked as the fourth best team in the IRB World Rankings and were named 2008 World Team of the Year at the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards.Although South Africa was instrumental...
tour of Australia. After captain Cyril Towers
Cyril Towers
Cyril Towers was an Australian rugby union player, a state and national representative centre who made 57 appearances for the Wallabies, played in 19 Test matches and captained the national side on three occasions in 1937...
had to leave the field, Keith moved to the centres and masterminded one of the great comebacks in Wallaby history. Keith was on the ill-fated 1939 Wallaby tour to England. The team docked at Southampton on the day war was declared and they returned to Australia without playing an international game. Keith Windon did manage to briefly resume his career after the war, touring to New Zealand with the 1946 Wallabies where his career ended. Seeing Keith play for Australia in 1937 at the Sydney Cricket Ground
Sydney Cricket Ground
The Sydney Cricket Ground is a sports stadium in Sydney in Australia. It is used for Australian football, Test cricket, One Day International cricket, some rugby league and rugby union matches and is the home ground for the New South Wales Blues cricket team and the Sydney Swans of the Australian...
inspired Colin to pursue his own rugby career.
Like his father, Col was active at Coogee Surf Club
Coogee Surf Life Saving Club
The Coogee Surf Life Saving Club is a foundation member of the surf lifesaving movement in Australia. It was founded in 1907 by a group of concerned locals and has a proud history of no lives being lost whilst its members have patrolled...
, in the Coogee Amateur Swim Club and the Coogee Penguins Winter Swim Club. He was a national title winner at beach flags
Flags (sport)
Beach Flags is a sporting event used by Surf lifesavers to practice beach sprinting and reflexes.The game is played by sticking a series of flags into the sand in a row. The competitors lie facing away approximately 20 metres away. Upon a starting signal, the competitors race to the flags and try...
.
Club rugby and playing style
He joined RandwickRandwick DRUFC
Randwick District Rugby Union Football Club, also known as the Galloping Greens, is an Australian rugby union club which competes in the Sydney grade competition. The club was formed in 1882 and since then has won 31 first grade premierships and seven Australian club championships...
in 1938 in fourth grade. The next year aged 18, he was playing first grade with the "Galloping Greens" and in that debut year he was equal-top scorer in the Sydney competition. Windon went on to play 98 first grade matches with the club.
He was a rugged, hard-tackling breakaway and a speedy, elusive runner with a notorious fend and a resultant gift for scoring tries. Howell (his teammate on the 1947-48 Wallaby tour) wrote that Windon always said his best coach was his brother Keith who schooled him in breakaway play. One of his dictums was always to look up while packing down in the scrums - to analyse the position of the opposition backs and to always run to the next line out and rest then.
War service
Enlisting in the Second Australian Imperial ForceSecond Australian Imperial Force
The Second Australian Imperial Force was the name given to the volunteer personnel of the Australian Army in World War II. Under the Defence Act , neither the part-time Militia nor the full-time Permanent Military Force could serve outside Australia or its territories unless they volunteered to...
on 18 December 1941 after basic training in Dubbo, Windon was posted to the 2/3 Infantry Battalion, 6th Division, and saw service in the Owen Stanley Range
Owen Stanley Range
Owen Stanley Range is the south-eastern part of the central mountain-chain in Papua New Guinea. It was seen in 1849 by Captain Owen Stanley while surveying the south coast of Papua and named after him. Strictly, the eastern extremity of the range is Mount Victoria , which was climbed by Sir William...
s in Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
. He contracted malaria there and after convalescence in the Atherton Tablelands he returned to New Guinea in 1944 for hard jungle encounters in the Aitape-Wewak campaign
Aitape-Wewak campaign
The Aitape–Wewak campaign was one of the final campaigns of the Pacific Theatre of World War II. Between November 1944 and the end of the war in August 1945, the Australian 6th Division, with air and naval support, fought the Imperial Japanese 18th Army in northern New Guinea...
during 1945. Windon was a company
Company (military unit)
A company is a military unit, typically consisting of 80–225 soldiers and usually commanded by a Captain, Major or Commandant. Most companies are formed of three to five platoons although the exact number may vary by country, unit type, and structure...
runner, the time-honoured military role of running messages from the front line to a command post, in his case under Japanese fire. He was discharged from the Army on 13 August 1946.
Representative rugby career
Bill McLean
William Malcolm McLean 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 rugby:...
where his star began to rise. On that tour he played nine of the twelve games including both Tests. He scored two birlliant tries against the strong Wellington side.
He played twice for the New South Wales Waratahs
New South Wales Waratahs
The New South Wales Waratahs are an Australian rugby union football team, representing the majority of New South Wales in the Super 15 Super Rugby competition...
against the touring All Blacks
All Blacks
The New Zealand men's national rugby union team, known as the All Blacks, represent New Zealand in what is regarded as its national sport....
in 1947 and was selected in the Australian side that met them - a veritable selection trial for the nine month Wallaby tour of Europe and North America planned for later that year.
He was one of the first selected for the 1947-48 Australian rugby union tour of Europe and North America and played in twenty seven of the tour's thirty-six matches and scoring eight tries to be the third highest tour try scorer behind three-quarters Terry MacBride, Charlie Eastes and Trevor Allan
Trevor Allan
Trevor Allan OAM was an Australian dual-code rugby international who captained Australia in rugby union before switching to rugby league with English club Leigh.-Rugby union club career:...
. He played in all five Tests of the tour and debuted as Australian captain in tour matches against Aberdeen and Leicester. He played eleven successive games at one stage of the tour. In the Test against England at Twickenham
Twickenham Stadium
Twickenham Stadium is a stadium located in Twickenham, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is the largest rugby union stadium in the United Kingdom and has recently been enlarged to seat 82,000...
he dominated the match and scored two tries including the game winner late in the second half when his punishing tackle on English pivot Tommy Kemp saw Kemp spill the ball and Windon outpace the English backline defence 50m to the try line breaking England's spirit and sealing the victory.
Following the success of the marathon tour he played three Tests against the visiting NZ Maori side in 1949 and also turned out for New South Wales against them. Then in 1949 he was selected as vice-captain to Trevor Allan
Trevor Allan
Trevor Allan OAM was an Australian dual-code rugby international who captained Australia in rugby union before switching to rugby league with English club Leigh.-Rugby union club career:...
for another tour of New Zealand when Australia were victorious in winning the Bledisloe Cup
Bledisloe Cup
Rugby Union's Bledisloe Cup is contested by the Australia national rugby union team and New Zealand national rugby union team. It is named after Lord Bledisloe, the former Governor-General of New Zealand who donated the trophy in 1931. The trophy was designed in New Zealand by Nelson Isaac, and...
in a two Test series - the first time that feat was achieved away from home. Windon played in ten of the twelve tour matches, scoring eight tries including a try in each Test and captaining is country in a minor game against Manawatu-Horowhenua.
In 1952 he was selected for the domestic series against Fiji
Fiji national rugby union team
The Fiji national rugby union team is a member of the Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance formerly along with Samoa and Tonga. In 2009, Samoa announced their departure from the Pacific Islands Rugby Alliance, leaving just Fiji and Tonga. Fiji are ranked sixteenth in the world by the IRB as of 26...
and that year made his third tour of New Zealand playing in nine of ten games including both Tests. His final representative tour was made to South Africa
South Africa national rugby union team
The South African national rugby union team are 2009 British and Irish Lions Series winners. They are currently ranked as the fourth best team in the IRB World Rankings and were named 2008 World Team of the Year at the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards.Although South Africa was instrumental...
in 1953 although injury saw him make only six tour appearances.
Early in his retirement he coached at Randwick in a stint from 1954 to 1957.
Records and accolades
In 1946 he was selected by the prestigious New Zealand Rugby Almanac as one of the world's top five players. The magazine Sporting Life picked him in its All Australian team in five years 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951 and 1952. For over thirty years Windon was Australia's leading Test try-scorer (11) until his record was overtaken by Brendan Moon in the 1980s. He holds the standing Australian record for the most career tries scored by a breakaway.In 1999, he was named in Australian Rugby's team of the century. In 2000, he was made a life member of the Sydney Cricket Ground
Sydney Cricket Ground
The Sydney Cricket Ground is a sports stadium in Sydney in Australia. It is used for Australian football, Test cricket, One Day International cricket, some rugby league and rugby union matches and is the home ground for the New South Wales Blues cricket team and the Sydney Swans of the Australian...
and a plaque there in the Walk of Honour commemorates his career. He was elected to Randwick
Randwick, New South Wales
Randwick is a suburb in south-eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Randwick is located 6 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the City of Randwick...
City Council's Sporting Hall of Fame and awarded an Australian Sports Medal for his achievements. He consistently features in top rugby player lists as the best breakaway in Australia's rugby history. In 2005 he was honored as one of the inaugural five inductees into the Australian Rugby Union
Australian Rugby Union
The Australian Rugby Union is the governing body of rugby union in Australia. It was founded in 1949 and is a member of the International Rugby Board the sport's governing body. It consists of eight member unions, representing each state and territory...
Hall of Fame. Upon his induction Australian Rugby Union
Australian Rugby Union
The Australian Rugby Union is the governing body of rugby union in Australia. It was founded in 1949 and is a member of the International Rugby Board the sport's governing body. It consists of eight member unions, representing each state and territory...
President Paul McLean referred to Windon as : "an electrifying talent and a try scoring machine".
His 1947 Wallaby tour teammate Sir Nicholas Shehadie
Nicholas Shehadie
Sir Nicholas Michael Shehadie, AC, OBE KStJ is the former Lord Mayor of Sydney and a former national representative rugby union captain, who made thirty career Test appearances...
described him as follows: As back-row forwards go, he was the very best. A try-scoring machine, a superb attacker and with the speed of a three-quarter, the man they nicknamed 'Breeze' was simply peerless in supporting play.
Sources
- The Spirit of Rugby (1995) (Collection of Essays) HarperCollins, Australia - (Essay specific to this article Phil Tressider's The Class of '47-48 1st published Sydney's Daily Telegraph 1987)
- Howell, Max (2005) Born to Lead - Wallaby Test Captains, Celebrity Books, Auckland NZ
- Shehadie, Nicholas (2003) A Life Worth Living, Simon & Schuster Australia