Colin Windon

Colin "Col" Windon, (8 November 1921 – 3 December 2003) was a rugby union player and soldier who captained Australia – the Wallabies – in two Test matches in 1951.

By age 18 Windon was playing at flanker for his club Randwick in Sydney's Shute Shield.

Both Colin and his brother Keith inherited their father's love of rugby; Keith played as a flanker for Australia between 1936 and 1946, with his career interrupted by the Second World War.

According to author Max Howell, Keith was a "football genius", and was a star during the 1937 South African tour of Australia.

It was after watching his brother play for Australia in 1937 that Colin decided he too wanted to play for Australia; at the time Colin was struggling in school rugby, and his father said to him "Son, I don't think you will ever play for Australia".

Col Windon joined Randwick in 1938 at the age of 17, and started playing in the fourth grade.

He had progressed to first grade when aged 18, and went on to play 98 first grade matches with the club.

Windon played at flanker or "breakaway", and earned the knick-name "Breeze" because, according to former Wallaby Max Howell "he ran like the wind".

In an obituary of Windon, he was described as "not only a rugged, hard-tackling breakaway, he was a speedy, elusive runner with a gift for scoring tries".

According to Max Howell Windon claimed his best coach was his brother Keith.

In order to analyse opponents, he would look up from the scrum before the ball was fed.

Keith was on the ill-fated 1939 Wallaby tour to England; the team docked at Plymouth, but the next day war was declared and they returned to Australia without playing a game.

Enlisting in the Second Australian Imperial Force on 18 December 1941 after basic training in Dubbo, Windon was posted to the 2/3 Infantry Battalion, 6th Division, He saw service in the Owen Stanley Ranges in Papua New Guinea where he contracted malaria, and after convalescence in the Atherton Tablelands he returned to New Guinea.

He recovered to see action Aitape-Wewak campaign in 1945.

Windon was a runner, and would weave and "zig-zag" to avoid enemy fire.

After serving with the Second Australian Imperial Force in the Pacific Theatre during the Second World War, Windon resumed his rugby career in 1946.

He was first selected for Australia for their tour of New Zealand that year.

Despite the Wallabies losing both their Tests on tour, Windon impressed with his play.

Keith did manage to briefly resume his career after the war, touring to New Zealand with the 1946 Wallabies, but he was diagnosed with gout while on tour and was forced to retire.

He was discharged from the Army on 13 August 1946.

Col Windon made his debut for Australia on their 1946 tour of New Zealand.

His brother Keith was in the side (the only player in the squad that had toured New Zealand previously) which was captained by Bill McLean.

Col Windon played nine of Australia's twelve matches on tour, and played both test matches against New Zealand.

The first test was played in Dunedin, where New Zealand won 31–8.

Despite the loss, the New Zealand Rugby Almanack described Windon as "the outstanding forward on either side".

The second test was a much tighter affair; played at Auckland, New Zealand scored only one try to win 14–10, but according to rugby writer Winston McCarthy, it was "only [New Zealand fullback] Bob Scott's boot that prevented them [Australia] from winning".

The following year New Zealand reciprocated and toured Australia.

Windon played twice for the New South Wales Waratahs against the touring All Blacks, and in one of the two test matches.

In 1947 Windon was selected for Australia's tour of Europe and North America where he played 27 of his side's 36 matches.

He played all five Tests on tour, against Scotland, Ireland, Wales, England and France.

In the match against England, which Australia won 11–0 after a dominant display from Windon that included two tries.

The tour was treated as a trial for Australia's 1947–48 tour of Europe and North America that commenced later that year.

He was appointed vice-captain for the Wallabies 1949 tour of New Zealand, where Australia won both Test matches to win the Bledisloe Cup in New Zealand for the first time.

He captained his country in two matches against the touring New Zealanders in 1951.

Windon's career ended after an injury interrupted tour to South Africa in 1953.

His eleven Test tries was the most by an Australian until the 1980s, and he was named in Australian rugby's team of the century in 1999.

In 2005 he was honoured as one of the inaugural five inductees into the Australian Rugby Union Hall of Fame, and in 2013 was named as an inaugural inductee in Inside Rugby's Invincibles.

Windon attended Randwick Public School before Sydney Grammar where he was a mediocre rugby player, and never progressed beyond the lower grades.

He showed promise as a young cricketer and from Grammar was selected in a Combined Schoolboys representative cricket 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.