Hi Dense. Never saw Mark Ella play and have only seen bits and pieces of footage, but I have heard from people who did see him play and I know how highly they rate him. Pity his career coincided with the isolation years.
He also had a brother Glen who was also highly rated. Think he was a centre rather than a flyhalf if I recall?
Tx.
Mark Gordon Ella, AM[1] (born 5 June 1959) is an indigenous Australian former rugby union footballer. Ella played at flyhalf/five-eighth and was capped by the Wallabies 25 times, captaining Australia on 10 occasions.
Ella made his debut tour with the Wallabies on the 1979 Australia rugby union tour of Argentina. He would later make his Test debut for Australia during the 1980 Bledisloe Cup Test series, in which the Wallabies defeated the All Blacks two games to one – the first three-Test series victory Australia against New Zealand since 1949, the first series victory over the All Blacks on Australian soil since 1934, and the first occasion the Wallabies successfully retained the Bledisloe Cup. In 1982, Ella was made captain of the Australia national rugby union team and he would go on to captain the Wallabies on 10 occasions from 1982 to 1983. After Arthur Beetson, he was the second indigenous Australian to captain a national sports team. Ella captained a depleted Australian team on the 1982 Australia rugby union tour of New Zealand, which the Wallabies would lose one game to two against the All Blacks. However, Australia scored 316 points in 14 matches on tour, including 47 tries. Ella is perhaps most famous for his performances on the 1984 Australia rugby union tour of Britain and Ireland, during which Australia achieved rugby union's Grand Slam by defeating the Home Nations in four consecutive Tests, with Ella scoring one try in each Test.
He and his brothers Glen (his twin) and Gary were educated at Matraville High School, where they learned to play rugby. All three went on to play for the Australia national team. Mark also played for Randwick and New South Wales domestically
Denny
is there a son of Ella playng for the Aussie team?
Not that I know of
.
Sorry - I messed up - the player I ws thinking of is Tom Lynagh - his father Michael Lynach was the flyhalf I saw in some tests - he layed 66 tssts at flyhalf and 6 tests at 12. I heard oftrn about Ella - bt neverf saw him play - bt saw Lynach and thought he was a very good flyhalf
Larkham was a pretty good modern Ella.
Denny
Hall Of Famer11,207 posts
Smitten Ozzie rugby mate of mine told me he'd seen both Hugo Porto and Mark Ella play against each other. Just as an aside I should say that my mate has been to every RWC. Now I know from your previous posts that you rate Hugo Porto as the best flyhalf you've ever seen...a question.....did you see Mark Ella play? I haven't seen either but I've read a bit about him. My friend also told me that he watched Porto make a complete mess of Ella but in the very next test Ella made a complete mess of Porto. I'll understand if you haven't seen Mark Ella play I guess his time was long before cable TV was popularized. Thoughts on Mark Ella if you have seen him play?