Dick Thornett
| Full name | Richard Norman Thornett | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 23 September 1940 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Sydney, New South Wales | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 12 October 2011 (aged 71) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of death | Sydney, New South Wales | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Notable relative(s) |
John Thornett (brother) Ken Thornett (brother) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby league career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Position(s) | Second-row | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior career | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Points) |
| 1963–71 1972 |
Parramatta Eels Eastern Suburbs |
160 9 |
(173) (3) |
| State of Origin | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Points) |
| 1963–69 | New South Wales | 13 | (21) |
| National team(s) | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Points) |
| 1963–68 | Australia | 11 | (3) |
| Position(s) | Lock | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Amateur team(s) | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Points) |
| 1961–1962 | Randwick DRUFC | () | |
| National team(s) | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Points) |
| 1961–1962 | Australia | 11 | (6) |
Richard Norman “Dick” Thornett (23 September 1940 – 12 October 2011) was one of five Australians to have represented their country in three sports. He was an Olympic water polo player before becoming a rugby league and rugby union player—a dual code international representative.
Thornett also represented Australia at Water polo at age 20 in the 1960 Rome Olympics giving him the truly rare sporting distinction of being a triple international (see also Michael Cleary).
A Randwick DRUFC forward, in his two senior seasons in rugby union in 1961 and 1962 Thornett made eleven national representative Tests appearances for the Wallabies. On the Wallabies 1961 tour of South Africa Thornett was in the squad with his brother John Thornett and they played Test matches together. Dick left the amateur code after two years to join his brother Ken Thornett at the Parramatta Eels.
Thornett was a second-rower, and joined his brother Ken at the Parramatta Eels in 1963. He played there until 1971, making 168 appearances for the club, being a master ball player informing the style-changing ball skills that Arthur Beetson would bring to forward play shortly after Thornett. In a club game against Canterbury in 1968 Thornett matched the then standing club record of four tries in a match.
In 1969 he appeared as a guest player for Auckland in a match against the New Zealand Kiwis to mark the New Zealand Rugby League’s diamond jubilee.
He made national representative appearances for the Kangaroos in Tests against South Africa in 1963, on the 1963–64 Kangaroo tour and in three matches of the 1968 World Cup.
...
Wikipedia