Men of Gold to honour Classic Wallabies Prosser and Van Gelder
August 22, 2008 - 12:11pm
Story by: ARU
The Wallabies will wear black armbands on Saturday night against the Springboks in Durban in honour of Classic Wallabies Roy Prosser and Lt. Col. (Ret.) Malcolm van Gelder, who passed away over the last fortnight.
Prosser, once Australia’s most-capped prop with 25 Test appearances from 1967-1972, made his Test debut on the 1966-67 tour to the UK and Ireland.
He learned his Rugby at Newington College before joining the Northern Suburbs club in Sydney, where he made 220 first grade appearances and played 236 games in all.
In the mid-1970’s he moved to Brisbane and was captain-coach when Western Districts won its inaugural top grade premiership in 1977, along the way Prosser coached future Wallabies Roger Gould and Stan Pilecki.
Van Gelder, who toured with the Wallabies to New Zealand in 1958, was an officer in the Australian Army, who scored a try on his Australian debut against Southland in Invercargill. He holds a special place in the annals of South Australian Rugby, as he won Wallabies selection the season after playing with Adelaide University.
