John Eales

Early life

Eales went to school at Marist College Ashgrove, in Ashgrove, a suburb of Brisbane. In his youth, Eales was also a very talented cricket all-rounder, and played first grade cricket for Queensland University in the Brisbane QCA cricket competition. Eales completed a Bachelor of Arts degree with a double major in psychology from the University of Queensland in 1991 prior to taking to the international rugby stage. His primary school was St William's School Grovely in Brisbane.

Rugby career

Eales played lock for Queensland Reds and Australia. He was given the nickname "Nobody" because "Nobody's perfect".

Eales' 55-cap reign as captain marked an era of Australian success in world rugby. Eales played a major part in Australia's victories at the Rugby World Cup twice in his illustrious career, first in 1991, and later skippering his country to victory in 1999. he took over the captaincy from Rod McCall, who replaced Phil Kearns after playing 31 tests.

Statistics

Eales scored 173 points for Australia – 2 tries (one valued at 4, one at 5), 34 penalties & 31 conversions – a total which, as of April 2013, places him 12th on the all-time scoring list for Australia. He is the highest scoring forward in test rugby history and, as of November 2015, only one of seven forwards to have surpassed 100 points in test rugby (the others being Richie McCaw, Jean Prat, Takashi Kikutani, Colin Charvis, Mamuka Gorgodze and Carlo Checchinato). This is largely because of his goal kicking, which is unusual for a forward; his two tries are unremarkable (in comparison, all of Checcinato's, Charvis's and McCaw's points have come from tries).

Eales captained Australia on 60 occasions, 55 times in Test matches. As of 2017, he is ranked seventh in games played as international captain. As of 2017, Eales' 86 caps make him the fourth most capped forward in Australia's test rugby history, and joint 9th on the overall list.

Eales played 20 tests against the All Blacks, winning 11 and losing 9. Of those 20 tests, he captained the Wallabies 11 times, winning 6 and losing 5. Eales is one of only 21 players to have represented the Queensland Reds in 100 or more state games - he represented his state in 112 games. He scored a total of 402 points in the Super 12 competition with 6 tries, 66 conversions and 80 penalties for the Queensland Reds. No forward has scored more points than him in the competition's history.

He is one of a select group to have won the Rugby World Cup twice.

He retired as the most-capped lock of all time, with 84 test appearances in that position (his other two tests were as a number eight). Eales has since been surpassed in caps as a lock by several players.

Business

Eales was a founder of the Mettle Group (a culture and leadership consultancy, which is now part of Chandler Macleod), and his personal company the JohnEales5 (now part of International Quarterback, a sports marketing and events company). He is also a director of Flight Centre and Palladium International, and a columnist for The Australian newspaper. He is also engaged as a consultant for Westpac.

Eales acted as a "rugby ambassador" at the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France, which involved a number of media duties.

Author

Eales has written 2 books, 'Learning From Legends', a Sport and a Business version. LFL Sports has a foreword by former Australian Prime Minister John Howard and talks about different legends of Australian Sport including Peter Brock and Ian Thorpe. LFL Business talks about different legends within the business world and the lessons that can be learned from them.

Honours