Lloyd Walker
How great was Walker? Great enough that Mark Ella devoted an entire chapter of his book Running Rugby to Lloyd Walker and his incredible abilities.
So why didn’t he play more for Australia? Australia is the land of converting five-eighths into inside centres, and Australia was blessed with a great big glut of talented five-eighths in the 1980s. It happened with Michael Hawker, Sydney University’s five-eighth, when he was converted into Australia’s inside centre in 1980. Then in 1981/82, when Paul McLean was struggling at five-eighth, Australia had a wonderful utility, Mitchell Cox, who wasn’t given a chance to play for Australia against Scotland, so Paul McLean could play outside Mark Ella. Then Hawker, who had established himself as Australia’s best inside centre, was dropped for the wonderful Michael Lynagh. But then Mark Ella retired in 1984, and Lynagh replaced him at five-eighth. Then what? Great stories were surfacing about a player from Eastwood, who was everything Michael O’Connor had once been – fast, elusive, and an amazing sidestep. Brett Papworth was the most talented five-eighth in the Sydney competition – so talented that he couldn’t be left out of the Wallaby squad, even with Michael Lynagh in it. Alan Jones made Papworth an inside centre (not a bad move at all). But what this incredible stream of exciting, dazzling, flair players meant was that the man Mark Ella referred to as the best ball player in Australia was never seen. Lloyd Walker wasn’t flashy. Well, he was flashy with the ball, but not with how he moved. What Lloyd Walker did he did well, and so well he underplayed his importance. A bizarre New Zealander I once knew talked about the importance of the inside centre being invisible – shadowing the five-eighth and playing off him. He’d have liked Lloyd. It’s one of the great ironies of Australian rugby that after a decade of being overlooked for five-eighths being converted into inside centre, Lloyd Walker made his rugby debut at five-eighth. Lloyd was converted from inside-centre to five-eighth! The result was quite stunning. Walker played against perhaps the greatest rugby side ever, the 1988 All Blacks, and was Australia’s best player in the only draw they had for four years (they went undefeated from 1986 until late 1990). |