Graeme Langlands

Graeme Langlands

Personal information
Full name	Graeme Frank Langlands
Nickname	Changa
Born	(1941-09-01) 1 September 1941 (age 75) Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
Playing information
Height	6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Weight	12 st 4 lb (78 kg; 172 lb)
Position	Fullback, Centre
Club Years Team Pld T G FG P 1959–62 Wollongong 1963–76 St. George 227 86 648 0 1554 Total 227 86 648 0 1554 Representative Years Team Pld T G FG P 1962 Country Firsts 1 0 0 0 0 1962–75 New South Wales 33 19 40 0 137 1963–75 Australia 45 21 73 0 206 1966–75 City Firsts 8 5 32 0 79
Coaching information
Club Years Team Gms W D L W% 1972–76 St. George 119 70 5 44 59 Representative Years Team Gms W D L W% 1973–76 City Firsts 3 2 0 1 67 1973–76 New South Wales 12 9 0 1 75 1973–75 Australia 24 18 2 4 75
Source: Whittacker/Hudson, Rugby League Project

Graeme Langlands, MBE, (born 1 September 1941) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer of the 1960s, and 1970s. He retired as the most-capped player for the Australian national team with 45 international appearances from 1963 to 1975, and captained his country in 15 Test matches and World Cup games. Langlands was the full-back and goal-kicker for the St. George Dragons in the latter half of their 11-year consecutive premiership-winning run from 1956 to 1966.

Born on 1 September 1941 in Wollongong, New South Wales, Langlands represented Combined NSW High Schools from 1955 to 1957 and was playing 1st grade with the Wollongong Club in the Illawarra competition at age 18. The fullback got his first big break with selection for Country Firsts in 1962 following the withdrawal of Newcastle's Les Johns due to injury. That same year he made the first of a record 33 interstate matches for New South Wales over 14 seasons.

With Billy Smith who also joined St George in 1963, Langlands added new firepower to the aging Dragons champion line up, initially as Reg Gasnier's centre partner, but later moving to fullback. On field Langlands and Smith demonstrated a magical telepathy and an intuitive understanding of each other's kicking and positional game.

He made his Test debut as a centre against New Zealand at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1963. The depth of selectors' fullback options, including incumbents Ken Thornett then Les Johns, meant that Langlands spent the first four years of his Test career at centre. He excelled there and in the Ashes deciding 2nd Test at Station Road in Swinton against Great Britain on the 1963–64 Kangaroo Tour he scored an Anglo-Australian record of 20 individual points in the historic 50–12 "Swinton massacre". 1963 also saw the Kangaroos win The Ashes in England for the first time as solely an Australian team (the 1911-12 Kangaroo Tour had included New Zealand players), starting a run from 1963 until the present where Australia hasn't lost a series on a Kangaroo Tour. Thereafter Langlands played international football for Australia every season for 13 seasons.