Denis Pittard was an Australian rugby league

Rugby league

Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...

 player, a fine attacking five-eighth of the 1960s and 1970s for the Western Suburbs Magpies

Western Suburbs Magpies

The Western Suburbs Magpies are an Australian rugby league football club based in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. Formed in 1908, Wests, as they are commonly referred to, were one of the nine foundation clubs of the first New South Wales Rugby League competition in Australia...

, South Sydney Rabbitohs

South Sydney Rabbitohs

The South Sydney Rabbitohs are an Australian professional rugby league football team based in Redfern, a suburb of South-central Sydney, New South Wales. They participate in the National Rugby League premiership and are one of nine existing teams from the state capital...

 and Parramatta Eels

Parramatta Eels

The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, with their First Grade side playing their first season in the New South Wales Rugby Football League...

 as well as the Australian national representative side.

Wests club career

He played 46 games with Western Suburbs between 1965 and 1967, scoring 14 tries.

Souths club career

He played 121 games with South Sydney between 1967 and 1973, scoring 56 tries. He played in the 1968, 1970 and 1971 victorious Rabbitohs

South Sydney Rabbitohs

The South Sydney Rabbitohs are an Australian professional rugby league football team based in Redfern, a suburb of South-central Sydney, New South Wales. They participate in the National Rugby League premiership and are one of nine existing teams from the state capital...

 Grand Final teams. He became the first player to win two Rothmans Medals (1969 and 1971).

Parramatta club career

He played 35 games with Parramatta between 1974 and 1975, scoring 11 tries and 28 goals. He is widely acknowledged as Parramatta's finest player of his era and an inspiration to the success of future players such as Peter Sterling and Brett Kenny.

Representative career

Pittard represented for Australia in two Test matches (1969-1970) and appeared five times for New South Wales (1969-1972). Pittard toured New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 with the Australian side in 1969 and was selected in the 1970 Australian World Cup

Rugby League World Cup

The Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league competition contested by members of the Rugby League International Federation . It has been held nearly once every 4 years on average since its inaugural tournament in France in 1954...

squad.

Sources

• The Encyclopedia of Rugby League Players - South Sydney Rabbitohs, Alan Whiticker & Glen Hudson, Bas Publishing, 2005.