Phil Hawthorne 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...

 and rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 footballer - a dual-code international. He represented the Wallabies

Australia national rugby union team

The Australian national rugby union team is the representative side of Australia in rugby union. The national team is nicknamed the Wallabies and competes annually with New Zealand and South Africa in the Tri-Nations Series, in which they also contest the Bledisloe Cup with New Zealand and the...

 in 21 Tests and the Kangaroos in 3 Tests. He captained Australia in rugby league the 3rd Test of the 1970 Ashes series.

Rugby union career

Hawthorne was born in 1943 in Newcastle, New South Wales. From the Wanderers Rugby Union Club in Newcastle, he first represented for the Wallabies age 18 as Fly-half. For the next five years he was a consistent selection for Wallaby Tests and Tours and formed a formidable partnership with scrum-half Ken Catchpole

Ken Catchpole

Ken Catchpole OAM, is a former Australian rugby union footballer. A state and national representative half-back, he played twenty-seven matches for Australia, thirteen as captain. Catchpole rose through the ranks at the Randwick club as a young man, before making his debut for New South Wales...

.

On the 1966-67 Tour of England Hawthorne played in five Tests and set a new Tour point scoring record of 26 points (six field goals, two penalties and two conversions). In 1967 he joined Randwick

Randwick DRUFC

Randwick District Rugby Union Football Club, also known as the Galloping Greens, is an Australian rugby union club which competes in the Sydney grade competition. The club was formed in 1882 and since then has won 31 first grade premierships and seven Australian club championships...

 to pair with Catchpole

Ken Catchpole

Ken Catchpole OAM, is a former Australian rugby union footballer. A state and national representative half-back, he played twenty-seven matches for Australia, thirteen as captain. Catchpole rose through the ranks at the Randwick club as a young man, before making his debut for New South Wales...

 at club level and he played further Tests that year.

Rugby league career

In 1968 Hawthorne accepted a then record $30,000 contract to switch to the professional code and join the St. George Dragons

St. George Dragons

The St George Dragons was an Australian Rugby league football club in St George, Sydney, New South Wales that played in Australia's top-level Rugby league competition from New South Wales Rugby Football League in 1921 until 1998; in 1999 they formed a joint venture with the Illawarra Steelers,...

. He played 56 games for the Dragons from 1968 to 1971 at Five-eighth

Rugby league positions

A rugby league football team consists of thirteen players on the field, with four substitutes on the bench. Players are divided into two general categories: "forwards" and "backs"....

 before he joined Eastern Suburbs

Sydney Roosters

The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League and is one of the oldest and most successful clubs in Australian rugby league history, having won twelve New South Wales Rugby League...

 for his final season in 1972.

In 1969 he appeared as a guest player for Auckland

Auckland rugby league team

The Auckland rugby league team is the team which traditionally represents all of the clubs which play in the Auckland Rugby League competition. The Auckland Rugby League team has traditionally been a powerhouse of New Zealand domestic rugby league...

 in a match against the New Zealand Kiwis to mark the New Zealand Rugby League

New Zealand Rugby League

The New Zealand Rugby League is the governing body for the sport of rugby league football in New Zealand. The NZRL was founded on the 25 April 1910 in preparation for a tour of Great Britain that same year....

's diamond jubilee.

Phil Hawthorne's international rugby league debut against Great Britain in Brisbane on 6 June 1970 alongside John Brass

John Brass

John Brass is an Australian former rugby union and rugby league footballer - a dual-code international. He made twelve international representative rugby union appearances with the Wallabies from 1966–68 and six representative rugby league appearances for the Kangaroos in 1970 and 1975, as...

 saw them together become Australia's 32nd and 33rd dual code rugby internationals. He played all three Tests against Great Britain in 1970 and was captain in the 3rd Test with Langlands

Graeme Langlands

Graeme 'Changa' Langlands, MBE, is an Australian former rugby league footballer and coach of the 1960s and 70s. He retired as the most-capped player for the Australian national team with 45 from 1963 to 1975, and captained his country in 15 Test matches and World Cup games. Langlands was the...

 and Sattler

John Sattler

John William Sattler is an Australian former rugby league footballer of the 1960s and '70s. He was a rugged Prop forward who led his club, South Sydney to four premiership victories between 1967 and 1971 and who played four tests for Australia – three as the national captain...

 injured and unavailable.

Injury restricted Hawthorne's appearances in 1971. He left the club at the end of that year to join the Eastern Suburbs Roosters but spent much of the 1972 season in reserve grade behind the competitions eventual player of the year and fellow former wallaby John Ballesty.

He moved to Coffs Harbour in 1973 and captain-coached a local side. He was diagnosed with leukemia

Leukemia

Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...

in 1991 and died in September 1994.

Notable statistics

Hawthorne is remembered as a field-goal specialist with notable statistics including:

• 6 field goals in 5 Test matches on the 66-67 Wallaby Tour
• 18 field goals in 18 appearances with St George in 1968
• 12 field goals in 12 appearances with St George in 1969
• 3 field goals in his 3 Rugby League Tests in 1970.

Rugby league appearances

Team	Matches	Years
St. George Dragons	54	1968–1971
Eastern Suburbs	1	1972
New South Wales	2	1970
Australia (Tests)	3	1970