William Malcolm McLean (28 February 1918 – 9 December 1996) was an Australian soldier and a state and national representative

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player who captained the

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and som ...

in five Test matches immediately after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Early life

McLean was born in 1918 in

Ipswich, Queensland Ipswich () is an urban centre within the City of Ipswich in South East Queensland, Australia. Situated on the Bremer River (Queensland), Bremer River, it is approximately 40 km (25 mi) west of the Brisbane central business district. Ipswich is ...

. He attended

Brisbane State High School Brisbane State High School (BSHS or commonly State High) is a partially selective, co-educational, state secondary school, located in South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is a member of the Great Public Schools Association of Queensland, ...

Pre-war rugby

Like their father,

Doug McLean Sr. Douglas James McLean Sr. (15 April 1880 – 20 November 1947) was a pioneer Australian representative rugby union and rugby league footballer, a dual-code international. He also represented Queensland in rugby league. Rugby union career Born ...

, Bill's older brother Doug Jr. had represented for Australia in both rugby codes before Bill left school. Bill too was a promising sportsman – goalkeeper in the 1938 Queensland Water Polo Team and rowing in Surf Boat crews winning the Queensland state championship in 1938. He pursued a rugby career and in 1938 played with the

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...

club in Brisbane and made his representative debut with state selection the following year. From there he was selected for the ill-fated 1939 Wallaby tour to England captained by

Vay Wilson Vayro William Wilson, Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom), DSC (18 January 1912 – 1962) was an Australian naval officer and a state and Australia national rugby union team, national representative rugby union player who captained the ...

. The team docked at Southampton on the day when England declared war and after a couple of weeks spent filling sandbags to start the war effort, the squad set sail for Australia having not played a game. Of the unlucky tourists only McLean, Keith Windon and Len Smith would return to footballing success after the war.

Military service

McLean enlisted in the

AIF AIF, A.I.F., AiF or aif may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Argumenty i Fakty'' (AiF), a Russian newspaper * Australians in Film (AiF), a Los Angeles-based organisation for the promotion of Australian actors and filmmakers * Aspen Ideas ...

in July 1940. He was a Captain in the 2/3rd Australian Commando Squadron and saw action against the Japanese in

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

after parachuting in behind enemy lines. He was discharged in February 1946.Bill McLean War record
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Post-war rugby

After the war McLean was selected in and captained an Australia XV versus The Rest trial match. His opposing captain was his tour teammate Keith Windon and when The Rest won the game, McLean was picked as tour captain for the first post-war Wallaby tour of

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. Injured in the trial McLean missed the first six tour matches but played and captained the Wallabies in the two Tests against the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of New Zealand, which is considered the country's national sport. Famed for th ...

and the Test against the New Zealand Maori. The following year he again met the

when they visited Australia. He captained once against them and played in both Tests, the second as captain. He was pitted against the urbane Phil Hardcastle for the national captaincy honours in 1947. Hardcastle was a medical doctor who got on well with all but didn't lead from the front as was the confrontational style of McLean. McLean again led The Rest in a selection bout against an Australian XV, won the match and was confirmed again as the seventh Queenslander to lead Australia. The nine-month tour involved a circumnavigation of the globe and leadership of a mixture of battle hardened war veterans and young rugby stars. It was a singular honour on one of the world's great sporting tours. For McLean a return to the British Isles was in some ways a completion of unfinished business from 1939 and an opportunity to play on Twickenham's hallowed turf as his father and brother had before. The tour was only six matches old when McLean fulfilled his dream of playing at

Twickenham Twickenham ( ) is a suburban district of London, England, on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historic counties of England, Historically in Middlesex, since 1965 it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, who ...

in a minor clash against Combined Services. The match was near completion when he was hit by three tacklers from different angles. Writers Howell, Tressider and Shehadie (all present on the tour) each described the snap of bone breaking being audible to onlookers. McLean suffered a serious spiral fracture of the tibia and fibula. He played no further games on the tour and had now played his last representative match for Australia. The tour captaincy passed at that moment to the 21-year-old vice-captain Trevor Allan. McLean played for Queensland again in 1951 and 1952, also coaching both the Queensland and the Australian national side in those years.

Rugby lineage

In addition to his father and

brother A brother (: brothers or brethren) is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a family, familial relationship, it is sometimes used ende ...

's status as

Dual-code rugby internationals A dual-code rugby international is a rugby footballer who has played at the senior international level in both codes of rugby, 13-a-side rugby league and 15-a-side rugby union. Rugby league started as a breakaway version of rugby in Northern Engl ...

, his brother Jack McLean was a Wallaby of 1946, as were later Bill's son Peter McLean and Bill's nephews Jeff and Paul McLean. Paul McLean would later be the Chairman of the

Australian Rugby Union Rugby Australia Ltd, previously named Australian Rugby Union Limited and Australian Rugby Football Union Limited, is an Australian company operating the premier rugby union competition in Australia and teams. It has its origins in 1949. It is a ...

for a number of years up till 2008. See

McLean Family (rugby footballers) The McLean family were an Australian rugby clan who between them played 77 Tests for the Australian national rugby union team and a number of Tests for the Australian national rugby league team. The main grandstand at Ballymore, the home of the ...

References

Sources

* ''The Spirit of Rugby'' (1995) (Collection of Essays) HarperCollins, Australia – (Essay specific to this article Phil Tressider's ''The Class of '47–48'' 1st published Sydney's ''Daily Telegraph'' 1987) * Howell, Max (2005) ''Born to Lead – Wallaby Test Captains'', Celebrity Books, Auckland NZ * Shehadie, Nicholas (2003) ''A Life Worth Living'', Simon & Schuster Australia {{DEFAULTSORT:Mclean, Bill 1918 births 1996 deaths Australian rugby union players Australia international rugby union players Australia national rugby union team captains Australian Army personnel of World War II People educated at Brisbane State High School Place of death missing

Bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Pl ...

Australian Army officers Rugby union players from Ipswich, Queensland Rugby union flankers GPS Rugby players Queensland rugby union team players 20th-century Australian sportsmen