Bill Cerutti
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| Full name | William Hector Cerutti | ||||||||||||||||
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| Date of birth | 7 May 1909 | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Newtown, Sydney, Australia | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 3 July 1965 (aged 56) | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of death | Sans Souci, Sydney, Australia | ||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||
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William Hector Cerutti (7 May 1909 — 3 July 1965) was an Australian rugby union international during the 1920s and 1930s.[1] He was inducted into the Rugby Australia Hall of Fame in 2013.[2]
Biography
Cerutti, known as "Wild Bill", was born and raised in
A front-row forward, Cerutti was capped 21 times for Australia between 1928 and 1937. On the 1928 New South Wales tour of New Zealand, he featured in four matches which were retrospectively given Test status, as Australia's only representative team at that point in history. His actual Wallabies debut didn't come until the 1929 New Zealand tour of Australia. He was a permanent fixture in the Australian team until 1933, with sporadic appearances afterwards, before his international career was ended by his surprise omission from the 1939–40 tour of Britain and Ireland.[4]
Cerutti played a then record 247 first-grade games in Sydney rugby, bettering the previous record held by Cyril Towers. He spent his career with YMCA, Glebe-Balmain, Parramatta, Eastern Suburbs and St. George, before retiring in 1946.[5]
See also
References
- ^ "Union great, Bill Cerutti, dead". The Sydney Morning Herald. 5 July 1965.
- ^ Robinson, Georgina (15 August 2013). "McKenzie banished to Bledisloe 'no-man's land'". The Sydney Morning Herald.
- ^ "William Hector Cerutti". classicwallabies.com.au.
- ^ "Rugby Union Team Shocks". Daily News. 20 June 1939. p. 8 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Rugby Union Clashes". Daily Mirror. 31 August 1946. p. 9 – via National Library of Australia.