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Rugby player (1905–1961) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Geoffrey Victor Bland (26 September 1905 – 26 February 1961) was an Australian rugby union international.
Full name | Geoffrey Victor Bland | ||||||||||||||||
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Date of birth | 26 September 1905 | ||||||||||||||||
Place of birth | Manly, Australia | ||||||||||||||||
Date of death | 26 February 1961 55) | (aged||||||||||||||||
Place of death | Glasgow, Scotland | ||||||||||||||||
School | Manly High School St Mary's Cathedral College | ||||||||||||||||
Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||
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Bland, a native of Sydney, was educated at Manly High School and St Mary's Cathedral College. He was a surf life saver with the North Steyne Surf Lifesaving Club, regarded as one of the best sweep oarsman in New South Wales.[1]
Primarily a lock forward, Bland was a line-out specialist and began his first-grade career with Manly in 1925. Two year later, he achieved a New South Wales call up for the eight-month long 1927–28 tour of the British Isles, France and Canada, playing six matches over the course of the trip. He was also a member of the New South Wales team that toured New Zealand in 1928 and played in a win over a NZ XV in Christchurch, which would retrospectively become his Test debut (due to the fact the Wallabies were not competing at this time). After a four-year hiatus, Bland made further Test appearances in 1932 and 1933, this time in Wallabies colours, which included matches on the 1933 tour of South Africa.[1]
Bland relocated to Scotland at the conclusion of the South Africa tour and married his wife Eileen in 1941.[2] During World War II, he was a lieutenant with the Irish Guards, taking part in the Battle of Anzio.[3] He died in Glasgow in 1961 at the age of 55.[4]
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