Bill Hardcastle
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Bill (William Robert) Hardcastle (1874 - 1944) was a pioneer New Zealand and Australian rugby union player and an Australian rugby league player. He represented both countries in union and Australia in league. He was one of the first dual code rugby internationals.
He had been an 1897 All Black in the team which toured Australia and he played in 7 tour matches. He journeyed to Sydney in 1899 on hearing that the visiting British Rugby Union team would be not be travelling any further than Sydney. Australian rugby in those days had no residential rules and once they took the field with a Sydney club, players qualified as Australians for possible national selection.
He played for the Glebe club in Sydney from where he was chosen for the Wallabies in the fourth test of 1899 against Great Britain. He also played for Australia in 1903 in Sydney against New Zealand in the first official rugby union international between the countries.
He became an early convert to the fledgling league code and played for the Ipswich club in Queensland. He was selected in the 2nd Test of 1908 against New Zealand. Five former Wallabies had debuted for the Kangaroos in the inaugural Test three weeks earlier, Hardcastle's league Test debut that day with George Watson made them the 6th and 7th Australian dual code internationals. He also played in the 3rd Test a week later.
Hardcastle toured with the pioneer 1908 Kangaroos and played for Australia on six occasions though he did not play in the Tests.
Bill Hardcastle served with the AIF in the First World War. He was a Private in the 3rd Infantry Battalion.
[edit] Sources
- Whiticker, Alan (2004) Captaining the Kangaroos, New Holland, Sydney
- Fagan, Sean (2005) Colonial Rugby, RL1908, Sydney
