Name Dick Tooth | ||
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Education University of Sydney, Newcastle Boys' High School | ||
Dick Tooth born 1929 is an Australian former rugby union footballer of the 1950s. He represented for the Wallabies in ten Test matches and nineteen total appearances and was Australian captain on two occasions. He resided at St Andrew's College while studying at Sydney University. His club rugby was played with the Sydney University Football Club and later with Randwick in the Shute Shield. He practised as an orthopaedic surgeon and was a sports medicine pioneer.
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Early life and education
Richard Murray Tooth was born in Bombala and his family relocated to Newcastle when he was seven years of age. He attended Newcastle Boys' High School and represented the school in rugby league, swimming (member of the 1943 Farlow Cup winning team) and athletics (member of the 1943 winning teams, CHS Juvenile Shield, Kerr and Lintott Cups). An all-round schoolboy athlete, he swam in the summer with the Cooks Hill Surf Life Saving Club.
While studying science at the University of Sydney and domiciled at St Andrew's College, Tooth played inter-collegiate rugby and grade rugby for the University. In 1949 he switched to medicine and at the same time cemented a spot in Sydney's University's 2nd grade side. From there he was selected in an Australian Universities XV who met a New Zealand Universities side for a three match series in 1949.
Representative career
In 1950 he was a regular first grader at University, was coached by former Wallaby Joe Kraefft and played against a visiting British Isles side. In 1951 he was selected for New South Wales and made his debut for Australia with three Test appearances against the All Blacks at five-eighth marking the experienced All Black fly-half Laurie Haig.
He focussed on his studies for the next couple of years but in 1954 was back in the national side in a series of games against the visiting Fijians playing in one Test at fullback and another at centre. In 1955 he was selected in the Wallaby touring party to New Zealand captained by his University colleague John Solomon. He appeared in twelve of the thirteen tour games at either fullback or fly-half and had a sound tour.
In 1957 he captained the Wallabies on two occasion when the All Blacks toured Australia. It was a surprise when at the end of that season and as the current Australian captain, he was not selected in the 27 man Wallaby side to tour Britain, Ireland and France. Howell reports that his omission defied explanation given his positional versatility but Tooth took it in his stride and travelled himself to the United Kingdom at that time to continue his medical studies. While there he captained the Rosslyn Park club side in England, played for Middlesex and while a resident at a Belfast Hospital was selected in the invitational side the North of Ireland Wolfhounds.
Orthopaedic Surgeon
Tooth helped pioneer arthroscopic surgery in Australia. In 1971, he performed the first full knee reconstruction in Australia; his patient was Johnny Warren, captain of the Socceroos who went on to captain them to the 1974 World Cup.
Family Life
In 1956 he married Marianne, the elder daughter of the Consul-General for Sweden, Ivar Stenstrom. Their daughter, Liane Tooth, is a double Olympic gold medallist.
His nephew Tim Walsh was a first grade rugby player with Leeds Carnegie and made a number of representative appearances for Australia at Rugby Sevens.