New South Wales Rugby Football League season 1958

Infobox rugby league season
year = 1958
competition = New South Wales Rugby Football League


imagesize = 125px
caption =
teams = 10
premiers =
count = 5th
minor premiers =
mpcount = 5th
matches = 95
points = 3050
attendance = 1030272
top points scorer = (225)
top try scorer = (18)
1958's New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the fifty-first season of the rugby league competition based in Sydney. Ten teams from across the city competed for the J. J. Giltinan Shield during the season, which culminated in a grand final between St. George and Western Suburbs.

eason summary

Having been wooden spooners in NSWRFL season 1955, Wests embarked on a massive spending spree to recruit internationals Harry Wells, Kel O'Shea, Arthur Summons, Dick Poole, Darcy Henry and Ian Moir over a five-year period. The fruits of this labour began to show in 1958 when they finished in second place for the minor premiership and posed a challenge to St George in the finals.

Harry Bath was the competition's leading goal scorer in 1958, with his St George teammate Eddie Lumsden the leading try scorer. Bath shattered the Dragons club's point scoring record with 225 season points from three tries and 108 goals.

19-year-old Reg Gasnier, later to be honoured as one of the Australian game's Immortals, made his 3rd grade debut in 1958 and was immediately noticed, regularly scoring length-of-the-field tries.

Teams

Grand Final

In an effort to negate Peter Dimond, Saints' dropped Peter Carroll for the Grand Final, selecting lock and hard hitting defender, Brian Clay at five-eighth. From the kick-off, the record crowd saw a furious St George team lay into Wests. High tackles and punches were the order of the day and referee Darcy Lawler penalised the Dragons seventeen times to Wests seven.

Wests were unable to counter the onslaught which saw a ruthless Dragons' defence advancing upon them at every opportunity although the score remained close for most of the match. Eventually with the Magpies subdued, Norm Provan and Bob Bugden cut loose, with Provan scroing two tries and Bugden snatching an intercept try near the end. Saints won the fight, and the match. For 80 minutes Clay was all over Dimond who ended the match dazed and bleeding.

The Sydney Morning Herald described the match as the most 'savage' game of the season.

St George 20 (Tries: N. Provan 2, Bugden, Lumsden. Goals: Bath 4.)

Wests 9 (Tries: Russell. Goals: Russell 3 )

References

* [http://www.stats.rleague.com/rl/seas/1958.html Rugby League Tables - Season 1958] "The World of Rugby League"
* Writer, Larry (1995) "Never Before, Never Again", Pan MacMillan, Sydney
* [http://www.rabbitohs.com.au/The-Club/Tradition/Results---1951-1960.html Results:1951-60 at rabbitohs.com.au]
* [http://www.rleague.com//db/year/1958/j_j_giltinan_shield/index.php 1958 J J Giltinan Shield at rleague.com]
* [http://rugbyleagueproject.com/competitions/NSWRL_1958.html NSWRFL season 1958 at rugbyleagueproject.com]
* [http://www.showroom.com.au/dragons/dragonshistory/history_stgeorge4a.htm#1958 1958 Final at Dragons History site]