Mark Ella
| Full name | Mark Gordon Ella | ||||||||||||
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| Date of birth | 5 June 1959 | ||||||||||||
| Place of birth | La Perouse, New South Wales, Australia | ||||||||||||
| School | Matraville High School | ||||||||||||
| Notable relative(s) |
Glen Ella Gary Ella (brothers) |
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| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||
| Playing career | |||||||||||||
| Position | First five-eighth | ||||||||||||
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| Amateur clubs | |||
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| Years | Club / team | ||
| Randwick | |||
| Provincial/State sides | |||
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| Years | Club / team | Apps | (points) |
| New South Wales | |||
| National team(s) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Years | Club / team | Apps | (points) |
| 1980–1984 |
 Australia
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25 | (78) |
Mark Gordon Ella, AM (born 5 June 1959) is an Australian former rugby union player, often considered as one of his country's all-time greats in that sport. In a relatively short career (he retired in 1984, aged 25), Mark Ella established himself as one of the all-time greats in world rugby union.
He and his brothers Glen (his twin) and Gary were educated at Matraville High School, where they learned to play rugby. All three went on to play for the Australia national team. Mark also played for Randwick and New South Wales domestically.
Bob Dwyer, former coach of the Wallabies, in his first autobiography The Winning Way, claimed Ella to be one of the five most accomplished Australian players he had ever seen. Dwyer hailed Ella as number one “for mastery of the game's structure.” This is perhaps due to Dwyer's perspective on the five-eighth's role: “A five-eighth’s primary function is to draw defence and so open up space for the runners outside him." This conveys how Ella approached playing the five-eighth position.
The London Observer described Ella as "the detonator which explodes the brilliance of the Australian backs at critical moments." Ella figured prominently in Australia's rugby success during his career, trapping in defenders and unleashing team-mates into space, before running in support of the ball carrier.
A proficient exponent of the flat attack style, Ella's approach to playing the five-eighth position was unique and different from that of any other five-eighth of his era. Ella's method of attack involved many obvious characteristics different from those of his five-eighth contemporaries. Gareth Edwards writes in 100 Great Rugby Players, “Firstly, he stands closer to his scrum-half than most other stand-off halves I have played with or against, so that he pulls back row forwards on him at an angle which makes it hard for them to change direction, once he has released possession, to harass the midfield.” Ella describes the distance from which he stood from the scrum-half in his book Running Rugby, “Generally, I stood about 5 metres from the halfback and about 4 metres behind him. According to the old formula for the right-angled triangle, this means I was no more than 3 metres wide of him.”
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