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David Pocock

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This article is about the rugby union player. For other uses, see David Pocock (disambiguation).

David Pocock
Birth nameDavid Pocock
Date of birth (1988-04-23) 23 April 1988 (age 36)
Place of birthGweru, Zimbabwe
Height1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)[1]
Weight103 kg (227 lb)[2]
SchoolAnglican Church Grammar School
SpouseEmma Pocock
Rugby union career
Position(s) Flanker, No. 8
Current team Panasonic Wild Knights
Senior career
Years Team Apps (Points)
2016− Panasonic Wild Knights 15 (10)
Correct as of 13 January 2019
Super Rugby
Years Team Apps (Points)
2006–2012
2013–2019		 Template:Rut Force
Template:Rut Brumbies		 69
43		 (35)
(79)
Correct as of 8 March 2019
International career
Years Team Apps (Points)
2008–2019 Australia 78 (45)
Correct as of 19 September 2019

David Pocock (born 23 April 1988) is a retired Australian rugby union player. He is an openside flanker, and vice captain of the Brumbies in Super Rugby. Born in Zimbabwe, Pocock moved to Australia as a teenager and played for the Australia national rugby team.

Early and personal life

Pocock in 2016

Pocock was born in Zimbabwe. He grew up on a farm owned by his family, who fled the country during a period of heightened unrest owing to the Zimbabwean government's land seizure and redistribution campaign. His family migrated to Brisbane, Australia in 2002.[3]

He was educated at the Anglican Church Grammar School in Brisbane. In 2005, he played in the school's undefeated premiership-winning 1st XV alongside future Australia teammate Quade Cooper. That same year, he was selected to play in the Australian Schoolboys team.

In between Western Force's UK tour and the Wallabies 2008 Spring Tour he climbed Mt Kilimanjaro with one of his friends, Morgan Clarke. At the end of 2010, he and his partner Emma Palandri held a marriage ceremony before family and friends in Perth, although they had controversially pledged to refuse to enter into marriage until it was opened to same-sex couples in Australia.[4] Pocock and his friend Luke O’Keefe run a not-for-profit organisation, Eightytwenty Vision, which has the aim of helping the less fortunate people of Zimbabwe.

Rugby career

Pocock playing for Australia in 2009

Pocock played for the Force, where he made his debut in 2006 against the Sharks in Durban.[5] Pocock made appearances for Australian Schoolboys and Australia A in the 2007 IRB Pacific Nations Cup,[6] earning man of the match multiple times in the tournament. He then made his Australia debut as a substitute against the Barbarians on 3 December 2008.

Pocock made his test debut in Hong Kong in late 2008, and then played against Italy and the Barbarians on the Wallabies spring tour. That same year he also captained the Australian Under 20s at the Junior World Championships in Wales, and was then awarded the Emirates Western Force captaincy for the development tour of England.

In 2009 Pocock played 13 Super Rugby games and was again called up to the Wallabies Squad. The year 2009 was a breakthrough year, during which he featured in 13 of the 14 Tests played by Australia – including a man of the match effort in the drawn Test against Ireland at Croke Park, as well as a maiden Test try during the 33–12 win over Wales at Cardiff. Pocock had earlier started the year by scoring his first try for his adopted country during the 55–7 win over the Barbarians in a non-cap match in Sydney. As a credit to his improving performance in the game Pocock replaced longstanding Wallaby openside flanker George Smith, late in the 2009 Tri-Nations. In the Wales test in the 2009 Autumn Internationals, he put his thumb back into its socket after it had been dislocated and continued to play. He was, however, substituted at half-time and replaced by George Smith.[7]

In 2010, Pocock became the first choice openside flanker for the Wallabies. He won the John Eales Medal in 2010 – the highest honour in Australian Rugby. Pocock was recognised at an international level after being nominated alongside five other players for 2010 IRB Player of the Year, an award given to the best player in world rugby. In addition he was recognised with the Australia's Choice Wallaby of the Year and awarded the Rugby Union Players Association (RUPA) Medal of Excellence.

In both 2010 and 2011, Pocock was a finalist for the IRB International Player of the Year.[8][9]

Pocock took over the Wallabies captaincy during the 2012 midseason test series when regular captain James Horwill was injured.[10]

At the conclusion of the 2012 Super Rugby season, he left the Western Force to join the ACT Brumbies.[11][12]

In 2013, he underwent a knee reconstruction, and Michael Hooper became the Wallabies first choice number 7.[13]

In 2014, in the course of his third game back after knee reconstruction, he damaged his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and had another knee reconstruction in late March 2014. On 15 January 2015, Pocock and teammate Nic White were appointed vice-captains of the Brumbies for the 2015 Super Rugby season.[14]

On 23 September 2015, Pocock scored two tries in Australia's opening game of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, a 28–13 win against Fiji at the Millennium Stadium,[15] as well as also scoring a try in a defeat to the 2015 Rugby World Cup Final the New Zealand All Blacks.[16]

Pocock signed a three-year deal with the Panasonic Wild Knights of Japan's Top League in May 2016. The deal, agreed on in negotiations that also involved the Australian Rugby Union (now Rugby Australia), was structured to make him eligible to play for Australia in the 2019 Rugby World Cup. He played the 2016–17 Japanese season with the Wild Knights; once that season ended in January 2017, he took a sabbatical from all rugby until the start of the Wild Knights' 2017–18 season. Immediately after the end of that season, he returned to Australia to play for the Brumbies in the 2018 and 2019 Super Rugby seasons, skipping the 2018–19 Japanese season. On 6 September 2019, Pocock announced his international retirement after the 2019 World Cup in Japan, where he will then complete his Japanese contract in 2019–20.[17][18] On 23 October 2020 Pocock announced his retirement from all forms of rugby to focus on conservation efforts.

Activism

Pocock is concerned about global warming and the damage to the environment from human activity. Most notably, he visited the Leard Blockade against the expansion of the Maules Creek mine in the Leard State Forest and was arrested for taking part in a nonviolent protest.[19]

In 2012, he publicly supported the Australian Government’s since-revoked fixed price Emissions Trading Scheme, saying, "Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time and to finally see the government taking action is a bit of a turning point... It's probably not the perfect model, but I think it's a really good start and it's something we need to do for the future of Australians."[20]

Pocock is one of the more visible campaigners in professional sports in Australia against homophobia, actively taking a stand both on and off the field.[21]

Alongside this, he had been a public advocate in the campaign for same-sex marriage in Australia. He had been a guest on the ABC's panel show Q&A, debating among other topics the issue of legalising same-sex marriage. Although he and his partner Emma held a marriage ceremony in 2010, they had refused to sign documents that would result in their legal marriage until their potential gay friends may be able to do the same.[22] After the country enacted legislation to allow same-sex marriage in 2017, they officially signed marriage documentation on 1 December 2018.[23]

Super Rugby statistics

As of 26 April 2020[24]
Season Team Apps Start Sub Mins T C PG DG Pts YC RC
2006 Template:Rut Force 1 1 0 80 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2007 Template:Rut Force 12 5 7 515 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
2008 Template:Rut Force 12 11 1 858 1 0 0 0 5 2 0
2009 Template:Rut Force 13 13 0 1028 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2010 Template:Rut Force 8 8 0 640 2 0 0 0 15 0 0
2011 Template:Rut Force 9 9 0 651 1 0 0 0 5 0 0
2012 Template:Rut Force 14 14 0 1120 3 0 0 0 15 0 0
2013 Template:Rut Brumbies 3 3 0 229 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2014 Template:Rut Brumbies 2 2 0 150 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2015 Template:Rut Brumbies 14 13 1 1035 8 0 0 0 40 0 0
2016 Template:Rut Brumbies 11 11 0 859 2 0 0 0 10 1 0
2016-17 Panasonic Wild Knights 4 4 0 272 1 0 0 0 5 0 0
2017-18 Panasonic Wild Knights 11 10 1 718 1 0 0 0 5 0 0
2018 Template:Rut Brumbies 10 10 0 743 2 0 0 0 10 0 0
2019 Template:Rut Brumbies 3 3 0 150 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
2019-20 Panasonic Wild Knights 6 2 4 216 1 0 0 0 5 0 0
Total 133 119 14 9268 23 0 0 0 115 5 0

References

  1. ^ "David Pocock". Rugby.com.au. Australian Rugby Union. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  2. ^ https://www.rugby.com.au/players/david-pocock#Rugby-World-Cup
  3. ^ "True Grit - Part 1". By Winsome Denyer Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  4. ^ Nunn, Gary. "Winning by putting yourself second". executivestyle.com.au. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
  5. ^ "The force of Pocock". www.dailytelegraph.com.au. 6 May 2011. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  6. ^ "Turner stars in Australia A victory". ESPN.com. 25 May 2007. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  7. ^ "About Dave". David Pocock. Retrieved 2 November 2013.
  8. ^ Guardian Staff (19 October 2011). "Rugby World Cup 2011: Who should be the IRB's player of the year?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  9. ^ "All Black McCaw retains IRB award". 25 November 2010. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  10. ^ "David Pocock is new Wallabies captain, as team is named for Scotland Test". Australian. News Limited. 3 June 2012. Retrieved 18 June 2012.
  11. ^ "Pocock signs with Brumbies". Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax. 29 July 2012. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
  12. ^ "Pocock faces surgery". Rugby 365. 10 March 2013. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
  13. ^ Dutton, Chris (16 January 2013). "David Pocock shrugs off Wallabies leadership speculation". Canberra Times. Fairfax. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  14. ^ http://www.sanzarrugby.com/superrugby/news/white-and-pocock-named-brumby-vice-captains/
  15. ^ "Australia miss out on try bonus point despite victory over Fiji". Guardian. 23 September 2015. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  16. ^ http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union-match-report/rugby-world-cup-final-2015-all-blacks-beat-wallabies-in-thrilling-decider-20151031-gknu4r.html
  17. ^ "David Pocock signs with Panosonic (sic) Wild Knights for three years". ESPN (UK). 29 May 2016. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  18. ^ "Pocock confirms international retirement following 2019 Rugby World Cup". Fox Sports. Christy Doran. 6 September 2019.
  19. ^ "David Pocock, former Wallabies captain, charged over Maules Creek coal mine protes". By Kerrin Thomas and staff Australian Broadcasting Corporation 1 December 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  20. ^ https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/wa/pocock-pulls-on-green-guernsey-ng-2dc783ea69be615454f44eeb5f46e31b
  21. ^ http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/union-match-report/david-pocock-says-no-room-for-homophobic-slurs-in-sport-or-society-after-incident-in-brumbies-clash-against-waratahs-20150322-1m4vsf.html
  22. ^ http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/australian-rugby-player-david-pocock-speaks-out-marriage-equality230812
  23. ^ Ward, Mary (3 December 2018). "David Pocock marries 'best mate' in beautifully simple ceremony". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  24. ^ "Player Statistics". its rugby. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
Preceded by Australian national rugby union captain
2012 		Succeeded by
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