Hyram A. Marks was a 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 represented Australia

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...

.

Marks, a lock, was born in Sydney, NSW and attended Sydney Grammar School

Sydney 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....

 and Sydney University. He claimed two international rugby caps for Australia and was the University rugby club

Sydney University Football Club

Sydney University Football Club, founded in 1863 , is the oldest club now playing rugby union in Australia, and as such is nicknamed "The Birthplace of Australian Rugby" or simply "The Birthplace".The club are the current NSWRU Premiers.The club was a member of the inaugural Sydney club competition...

's first Wallaby representative. His Test debut was against Great Britain, at Sydney, on 24 June 1899, the inaugural rugby Test match played by an Australian 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...

 side.

Due to funding constraints he was one of only six 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...

 players (Charlie Ellis

Charlie Ellis

Charles L. Seymour "Charlie" Ellis was a rugby union player who represented Australia.Ellis, a lock and flanker, was born in Newcastle, New South Wales and claimed a total of four international rugby caps for Australia...

, Bob McCowan

Bob McCowan

Robert Herman "Bob" McCowan was a pioneer Australian rugby union player, a state and national representative fullback who played in his country's first Test series of 1899, captaining the national side on one occasion....

, Lonnie Spragg

Lonnie Spragg

Alonzo Stephen "Lonnie" Spragg was a rugby union player who represented Australia.Spragg, a centre, was born in Redfern, New South Wales and claimed four international rugby caps for Australia...

, Peter Ward

Peter Ward (rugby)

Peter M. Ward was a rugby union player who represented Australia.A fly-half, he was born in Invercargill and claimed a total of four international rugby caps for Australia. His Test debut was against Great Britain, at Sydney, on 24 June 1899, the inaugural rugby Test match played by an Australian...

 & Robert Challoner

Robert Challoner

Robert Louis Challoner was a rugby union player who represented for Australia.Challoner, a number 8, was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and claimed a total of 1 international rugby caps for Australia...

) selected to make the trip to Brisbane four weeks later for the second Test. His performance in that match was noted as excellent by the press.

Sources

• Collection (1995) Gordon Bray presents The Spirit of Rugby, Harper Collins Publishers Sydney
• Howell, Max (2005) Born to Lead - Wallaby Test Captains, Celebrity Books, Auckland NZ

Footnotes