Champion flanker David Wilson shared rugby’s summit with John Eales as a World Cup winner yet both cherish their names being linked to a new club trophy.
Easts and Brothers will play for the John Eales-David Wilson Shield for the first time at Crosby Park on Saturday with both figures in attendance. It will be contested annually at the home ground of the current holder. All grades contribute to the overall result with the largest number of competition points won determining the winner of the shield.
For Wilson, arguably the greatest of Tigers, it is a proud symbol of where his rugby life began.
“’Ealsie’ and I had a long history playing together for Queensland and Australia but we were always passionate about our clubs,” Wilson said.
“We are great mates and shared a lot of great times.
“It’s a good feeling to know this shield is about our connection to grassroots where it all started. The rivalry with Brothers goes back a long way because so often they set the benchmark.
“I started as a Tiger in the juniors as a six-year-old and played my whole career with Easts.
“Playing barefoot in the wet at 7 am on a weekend made getting that mixed bag of lollies as a reward a pretty big deal.”
The family link goes much further back because his late father Keith played as a centre in some of East’s earliest teams in the 1950s.
“Dad was always a regular watching Easts games from the crowd and I’d go down and join him. He was very proud of what his battling club became,” Wilson said.
David Wilson played 79 Tests, captained his country nine times and was a standout for the 1999 World Cup-winning Wallabies in a golden era.
He’s an ever-humble figure. You won’t find a framed jersey on any wall at his Sydney home. His World Cup jersey and his first Wallabies jersey haven’t made it past the storage room.
He was sheepish about even accepting the honour when Easts decided on naming the main oval “David Wilson Field” at Bottomley Park in 2012.
“My son Harry was pretty young at the time and said, ‘I thought you had to be famous to have something named after you. Why did they name it after you?’,” Wilson recalled with a smile.
The parallels with the Eales career are uncanny. Both got a lift-off with the Emerging Wallabies in Europe in 1990. Both played more than 100 games for Queensland, mostly on the same sides between 1989 and 2001. And, of course, there was savouring Bledisloe Cup, Tri-Nations and World Cup highs together.
Both won a Colts premiership and lost their only first-grade grand final. Wilson (1989 and 1991) and Eales (1990 and 1995) both won two Rothmans Medals for club deeds or when blended with Queensland performances.
“Those Easts times were a big part of growing up. We won an undefeated Colts premiership in ‘86 with guys like Andrew Waldie, Scott Eisentrager, Paul Kahl, Damian Wallis and John Gibbons,” Wilson said.
It was a vintage crop.
“The Tigers made a run from fourth to the 1995 grand final. It was good to be a part of it after coming back from the 1995 World Cup (in South Africa),” Wilson said.
“We were probably always a long shot to win against a South’s side with a dozen Wallabies or Queensland players. We were still one of the only clubs in Brisbane not to have won a premiership after that but being there and experiencing a grand final helped those guys who did win two years later.”
For all the times they played together, Wilson could only recall playing against Eales a single time in a club game in 1990 before the lock’s stellar career took off.
Eales said the long friendship, rugby achievements and good times he has shared with Wilson make the freshly-struck shield something to be proud of.
“There were a lot of parallels to our careers and a nice symmetry to this. Each of our clubs meant so much to us,” Eales said.
“Openside flanker is one of the positions where the Wallabies have always been as strong as any team in the world. It’s always competitive for the No.7 jersey and they are always standouts.
“Dave was as good as any. How important he was to the best Wallabies sides of his time (1998-2000) is underrated but never by those who played with him.
“His back looked like a Sudoku board after most games. He was just all over the ball and just went about his business.”
