Stan Wickham

Representative career Wickham was first selected in a New South Wales representative side in 1895 aged 19 and would go on to make 37 Waratah appearances in a state representative career than lasted till 1906. He made 24 state appearances in matches against Queensland. Howell cites his finest Waratahs game as an 1897 tour match against the visiting All Blacks when he scored two tries and booted a conversion for a rare 22-8 New South Wales win over New Zealand. 300px

He first represented at the national level against New Zealand, in Sydney, on 15 August 1903. He made two Test appearances against Great Britain who toured Australia 1904 and then in 1905 he was selected for the Wallabies tour of New Zealand, the first overseas campaign by an Australian rugby side. He was one of fourteen New South Welshman, who with nine Queenslanders made up a twenty-five strong squad. It was a disappointing tour for the Wallabies who played seven games and won only the last three against Manawatu-Hawkes Bay, Wanganui-Taranaki and Auckland. Wickham played every match on tour and was top-scorer with eighteen points from two penalty goals and three goals from marks. In total he claimed five international rugby caps for Australia, four of them as captain.

Coach Wickham had been two years retired by the date of the 1908–09 Australia rugby union tour of Britain. New South Wales state selector James McMahon was tour manager and in those days the idea that anyone other than the captain would coach the side was frowned upon. McMahon was initially the only accompanying official but Howell writes that a public campaign resulted in Wickham also being included on the tour as Assistant Manager acting unofficially as coach.