McLean Family (rugby footballers)

The McLean Family were a remarkable Australian rugby clan who between them played 77 Tests for the Australian national rugby union team and a number of Tests for the Australian national rugby league team.

Doug McLean Snr

Douglas James McLean (1880 - 1947) was the patriarch. He was a pioneer Australian representative rugby union and rugby league player, a dual code international. He represented with the Wallabies in 3 Tests and as a Kangaroo in 2 Tests.

Doug had three sons and three grandsons who also played for Australia:

Doug McLean Jnr

Alexander Douglas McLean (1912 - 1961), played 10 Tests for the Wallabies between 1933 and 1936. He too was a dual-code international, playing two Kangaroo Tests on the wing and making the 1937 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain.

Bill McLean

William Malcolm McLean (1918 - 1996) played 5 Tests as captain of the Wallabies immediately after WWII. He was selected to lead the national side to tour Europe and North America in 1947-48. He badly broke a leg early in the tour and did not play in any further Tests.

Jack McLean

Jack McLean was a member of the 1946 Wallaby team that toured New Zealand though he didn't make the Test XV.

A fourth son Bob McLean had two sons who won Test caps:

Jeff McLean

Jeffrey James McLean born 26 Jan 1947 at Ipswich, Queensland played 13 times for the Wallabies between 1971 and 1974 on the wing. He debuted in 1971 against the Springboks. His final Wallaby appearance in the 1st Test of 1974 against the All Blacks was also the representative debut of his younger brother Paul.

Paul McLean

Paul Edward McLean born 12 Oct 1953 at Ipswich, Queensland was the most feted and successful footballer of the family. Paul was capped 31 times between 1974 and 1982 either at fullback or more frequently at fly half. He made his Wallaby debut in the first Test of 1974 against the All Blacks.

He was a world-class goalkicker and at his prime there was no better tactical kicker in the game. He was also a gifted runner and passer when he took those options although later in his career critics were regularly calling for Mark Ella's more obvious running game to be brought into the Wallaby side. In his 1982 farewell international season McLean smashed his own point scoring record with 21 points (five penalties and three conversions) in the 2nd Test against Scotland, a record which stood for eight years.

Brisbane newspaper journalist Hugh Lunn recorded the following epitaph on McLean's career in "The Australian":"Paul McLean played 31 Test matches for Australia and one hundred games for Queensland; he won the rugby premiership for his school (St Josephs Nudgee) with a 55m penalty kick; Brothers club lost only one of the eight grand finals in which he played; he scored exactly one thousand points for Queensland in his one 100th match in the last match of Queensland Rugby's Centenary year; he kicked 14 consecutive goals against Wales on their Australian tour; he holds the individual Australian point scoring record for a Test match of 21 points and he is the greatest point scorer in the history of Australian Rugby Union"."

Paul McLean since 2005 has been the President of Rugby Australia.

Peter McLean

Bill's son Peter William McLean born 8 Feb, 1952 in Brisbane, Queensland also represented at lock for the Wallabies. He made 16 Test appearances between 1978 and 1982, playing 11 times alongside his cousin Paul. His Wallaby debut was in the first Test of 1978 against the All Blacks.

ources

* The Spirit of Rugby 1995 (Collection of Essays) HarperCollins, Australia