Fred Wood
Encyclopedia
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 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, a state and national representative half-back. He was vice-captain of the Wallabies on their first overseas tour in 1908-09 and later captained the side in Test matches in 1910 and 1914. His representative career lasted from 1905 to 1914.
Early club and representative career
Wood played for the Glebe club in Sydney and first attracted attention when he represented in a 1905 Metropolitan (Sydney) side against the touring New Zealand sideAll 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....
. He was then selected in the second match for New South Wales
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 those same All Blacks.
A full Australian team was selected the next day - the first national side to tour overseas and Wood was selected at half-back in the 1905 side captained by Stan Wickham
Stan Wickham
Stan Wickham was a pioneer Australian rugby union player, a state and national representative centre who captained the Australian national side on a number of occasions in the early 1900s...
which toured New Zealand. Wood played in four tour matches of the seven contested by the side, but did not figure in the sole Test.
In 1907 Wood was selected for New South Wales to meet the visiting 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....
and played two matches alongside Chris McKivat
Chris McKivat
Christopher Hobart McKivat was an Australian rugby union and rugby league player – a dual-code rugby international. He represented the Wallabies in over 20 Tests and tour matches from 1907 to 1909 and the Kangaroos in 5 Tests from 1910 to 1912...
in the halves with the first a narrow loss and the second a 14-0 victory to the 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...
. Both McKivat and Wood were selected in the Australian test side captained by Peter Burge
Peter Burge (rugby)
Peter Harold Boyne Burge was an Australian rugby footballer and coach. He represented his country in both rugby league and rugby union...
to meet those same All Blacks but the Wallabies were well-beaten 6-26. Woods held his spot for the 2nd Test (a loss to Australia) and the 3rd (a 5-all draw).
In 1908 an Anglo-Welsh side toured Australia and Wood was honoured with the state captaincy for New South Wales in the first of the two encounters he played against them.
Wallaby tourist
Wood was selected as vice-captain on the first WallabyAustralia 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...
1908-09 Australia rugby union tour of the British Isles and France, the squad captained by Herbert Moran
Herbert Moran
Herbert Michael "Paddy" Moran was an Australian rugby union player, a state and national representative flanker who captained the Wallabies' on their first overseas tour in 1908-09.-Early years:...
. Wood and Joshua Stevenson were the selected halfbacks but with Stevenson injured in the fifth tour game the selectors were forced to look at other halves combinations amongst Chris McKivatt, Arthur McCabe
Arthur McCabe
Arthur John Michael McCabe was a pioneer Australian rugby union and rugby league player. He represented for Australian in rugby union at the 1908 Summer Olympics.-Rugby union career:...
and Ward Prentice
Ward Prentice
Warden Selby Prentice was an Australian sportsman who captained Australia at rugby union and New South Wales at first-class cricket and also played first-grade rugby league for the Western Suburbs Magpies....
who were also in the squad. Wood was unavailable with injury for a run of five games and McKivatt seized the opportunity with both hands and played in both Tests at half-back and captained the side in the Olympic
1908 Summer Olympics
The 1908 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the IV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in 1908 in London, England, United Kingdom. These games were originally scheduled to be held in Rome. At the time they were the fifth modern Olympic games...
gold medal bout
Rugby union at the 1908 Summer Olympics
Rugby union at the 1908 Summer Olympics. The event was summarised under the "Football" heading along with association football. The host Great Britain was represented by Cornwall, the 1908 county champion...
against Cornwall.
Moran later in Viewless Winds referred to the friction that arose since Wood as vice-captain was also a selector "The vice-captain was great little player who never found his form in England. It used to be unpleasant for us when, in the face of this, he insisted for a long time on his own selection. We did not want unfriendliness, but for nine [sic, in truth seven] matches in succession he kept McKivat out of his proper position"
However it was no disgrace to be playing second fiddle to McKivat and in any case following his recovery from injury Wood played another thirteen games, seven of them as captain and finished with a total tour tally of twenty appearances. When the Wallabies returned to Australia McKivatt and thirteen others of the squad moved to the ranks of the new professional code of rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
and Wood resumed his place as the top half-back for New South Wales.
Wood played 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....
of 1910 twice for New South Wales and in all three Test matches. That second test marked Australia's first ever victory over New Zealand in the seven encounters till then. Wood played against the New Zealand Māori rugby union team
New Zealand Maori rugby union team
New Zealand Māori is a rugby union team that traditionally plays teams touring New Zealand. A prerequisite for playing in this team is that the player is to have Māori whakapapa or genealogy. In the past this rule was not strictly applied. In the past non-Māori players who looked Māori were often...
when they toured against New South Wales in 1910 and in 1913. That same year 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...
undertook a nine match tour of New Zealand with Wood playing in eight of those games. Wood played in all three Tests and Howell quotes the Chester McMillan reference (The Visitors) that in both the second and third Tests "Wood was the outstanding back on the field".
In 1914 aged 30 Wood was still representing for Australia when the 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....
toured against and he was honoured with the captaincy of the national team in the first and third Tests. World War I marked the end of international rugby for a while as it also marked the end of Wood's long representative career having played 39 times for Australia including 12 Tests.
Fred Wood died aged 40 in 1924.