Geoffrey Victor Bland (26 September 1905 – 26 February 1961) was an Australian international
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.
Biography
Bland, a native of Sydney, was educated at
Manly High School and
St Mary's Cathedral College. He was a surf life saver with the North Steyne Surf Lifesaving Club, regarded as one of the best sweep oarsman in New South Wales.
Primarily a lock forward, Bland was a line-out specialist and began his first-grade career with Manly in 1925. Two year later, he achieved a New South Wales call up for the eight-month long
1927–28 tour of the British Isles, France and Canada, playing six matches over the course of the trip. He was also a member of the New South Wales team that toured New Zealand in 1928 and played in a win over a NZ XV in Christchurch, which would retrospectively become his Test debut (due to the fact 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 ...
were not competing at this time). After a four-year hiatus, Bland made further Test appearances in 1932 and 1933, this time in Wallabies colours, which included matches on the
1933 tour of South Africa.
Bland relocated to Scotland at the conclusion of the South Africa tour and married his wife Eileen in 1941. During
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 ...
, he was a lieutenant with the
Irish Guards
The Irish Guards (IG) is one of the Foot guards#United Kingdom, Foot Guards regiments of the British Army and is part of the Guards Division. Together with the Royal Irish Regiment (1992), Royal Irish Regiment, it is one of the two Irish infant ...
, taking part in the
Battle of Anzio
The Battle of Anzio was a battle of the Italian Campaign (World War II), Italian Campaign of World War II that commenced January 22, 1944. The battle began with the Allies of World War II, Allied amphibious landing known as Operation Shingle, an ...
. He died in Glasgow in 1961 at the age of 55.
See also
*
List of Australia national rugby union players
List of Australia national rugby union players is a list of people who have played for the Australia national rugby union team.
Note that the "position" column lists the position at which the player made his Test debut, not necessarily the posit ...
Notes
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bland, Geoff
1905 births
1961 deaths
Australian rugby union players
Australia international rugby union players
Rugby union players from Sydney
Rugby union locks
Manly RUFC players
Irish Guards officers
British Army personnel of World War II
New South Wales rugby union team players
20th-century Australian sportsmen