Cyril Eastlake: Difference between revisions

Cyril Eastlake

Personal information
Full name	Cyril Eastlake
Playing information
Position	Inside Center
Club Years Team Pld T G FG P 1945 Ellerslie 0 0 Representative Years Team Pld T G FG P 1951–1960 New Zealand 28 6 24 0 66
Source: RLP

Cyril Eastlake" (1930-2007) was a New Zealand rugby league player who represented New Zealand in the Kiwis .

Early years

He is from [[Auckland] and was educated at St Peter's College where he played rugby union. He started playing rugby league as a boy (without realising it) when sombebody knocked at the family house door one Saturday morning wanting to know whether the young Eastlake would play football because he was short of a player. He was due to play rugby union for St Peter's in the afternoon. But he was told that he could have an "extra game". Eastlake said; "I enjoyed the game tremendously and had some success in scoring a couple of tries, mainly because both sides appeared to be a few players short and there seemed to be a lot more room to run before someone tackled you. Towards the end of the game I realised there had been very few lineouts,. In fact, I couldn't remember one. Also the rucks were over so quickly that I missed seeing most of them. But all in it was a good game". In the afternoon, Eastlake played rugby union for St Peter's College against Sacred Heart. "Both sides had full teams of 15, and the game was full of lineouts and rucks, so much so that I began to wonder whether that morning's game was a different code altogether". This began Eastlake's move to rugby league and a long association with the Ellerslie club.

Rugby league career

Eastlake was a member of the the Kiwis from 1951. He appeared for "the Kiwis" in 79 games including 28 tests. In 1954 he was the captain of the New Zealand team at the first Rugby League World Cup competition in France.

During that Word Cup competition, Eastlak'es qualities were described in the opening game of the tournament against France. "The New Zealand captain, C. A. Eastlake, was an inspiration at centre, both in attack and defence. Time and again he halted dangerous back movements by holding A Jiminez. It was no mean performance to reduce Jiminez, a highly ranked centre last year, practically to impotence. In addition, Eastlake initiated attacks with dash and resource. He showed speed to score New Zealand's second try, while he was also responsible for R J McKay scoring." Although the game was won by france by 22 points to 13, Eastlake remained optimistic saying "We will do better now we have some match play. We can still win the cup. We were all a little stiff and the team took a long time to settle down. However, it was a good fast game, and I enjoyed it." Eastlake's optimism was not born out.

Eastlake was inducted into the New Zealand 'Legends of League' in 1995, an acknowledgement of the skills he brought to the game during an international career that ran from 1951 to 1960.

Sources

• John Coffey and Bernie Wood, The Kiwis: 100 Years of International Rugby League, Hodder Moa, Auckland, 2007
• Obituary, Cyril Eastlake, Richard Becht, "Eastlake converted to league: Cyril Eastlake, rugby league player", Auckland September 30, 2007, aged 77, The Dominion Post, Thursday 11 October 2007, p. B9.
• Ruby League Project - Cyril Eastlake
• Rick Maxwell, St Peter's College, Auckland, Simerlocy Press, Auckland, pp. 23 and 53 (Note 205).