Full name | Richard Murray Tooth | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date of birth | 21 September 1929 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Place of birth | Bombala, New South Wales, Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
School | Newcastle Boys' High School | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
University | University of Sydney MB BS (1955) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Occupation(s) | medical practitioner | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Position(s) | Versatile back | ||
---|---|---|---|
Amateur team(s) | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Points) |
1949-56 1957 1958 |
Sydney Uni Randwick Rosslyn Park (UK) Middlesex |
() | |
National team(s) | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Points) |
1950-57 | Australia | 10 | 21 |
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.
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.
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.