Phil Hardcastle
Date of birth | 23 December 1919 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Place of birth | Buenos Aires | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Date of death | 1962 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
School | Sydney University | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Occupation(s) | Medical Practitioner | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Phil Hardcastle (1919–1962) was an Australian rugby union footballer and medical practitioner. A state and national representative forward, he played five Test matches for Australia, one as captain.
Early life
Hardcastle was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and attended
Representative rugby career
His state representative debut was made for
In 1947 he captained New South Wales to a victory over the touring
He returned to the Test arena in 1949 playing against the New Zealand Māori in Sydney. His final representative appearance was for New South Wales in 1950 against the British Isles.
Playing style
Though a tall man Hardcastle was not a proficient jumper and often adopted spoiling tactics to prevent opposition locks getting above him in the line-out. The writer Howell toured and played alongside Hardcastle on the 1947-48 Tour and asserts that this habit led to various incidents when opposition forwards would get-square with Hardcastle to warn him off from holding them down in the jump.[1]
Howell also notes that Hardcastle had a lifelong stutter. This affected his ability to communicate quickly on-field but also led to an amusing incident on the 1947-48 tour when Hardcastle was nominated after the Swansea match to give the traditional visitor's response to the after-dinner speech. When tour manager Arnold Tancred called upon "the esteemed Dr Phil Hardcastle" to reply, Hardcastle got to his feet and said "Gee-gee-gee-gentlemen, w-w-words f-f-fail me" and sat down.[1]
Published references
- Howell, Max (2005) Born to Lead - Wallaby Test Captains, Celebrity Books, Auckland NZ