David Andrew Dennis

A Nepean junior and Australian schoolboy, Dave Dennis never gave up on his Wallaby ambitions despite suffering a run of injuries that threatened to end his professional career before it had even started.

Dennis played his first rugby at lock for the Richmond High School U13s. “The reason I played the game was because my older brother was playing first grade for Penrith. That’s the reason I started playing rugby and it got me into the game”. He went on to play two years of 1st XV in the Combined High Schools competition and from there won selection for Australian Schools in 2003. Also, in his final two years of school, Dennis ran around in colts for the Penrith Emus.

In 2003 he made the tough decision to leave Penrith and join Sydney University with the hope that a change in environment would provide a stronger platform in which to develop his rugby. After a couple of seasons in colts - during which he represented Australia U19s - Dennis moved to grade level and, aged just 21, made his Super 14 debut for the NSW Waratahs against the Crusaders in 2007.

Unfortunately, he was then struck down by back-to-back ruptured anterior cruciate ligament injuries - left knee playing for the Melbourne Rebels in the 2007 Australian Rugby Championship and then right knee at his first full session with the Waratah squad in 2008 - both of which required knee reconstruction surgery.

Dennis bounced back in 2009 and was given the tag of “bolter” when announced as one of seven uncapped players in the Wallabies’ 2009 end-of-season Spring Tour. However, it was not until 2012 and a shoulder injury to Ben McCalman, that Dennis finally claimed a Test debut, against Scotland in Newcastle. He went on to be one of only two players, alongside Nathan Sharpe, to feature in all 15 Tests played that year. Dennis capped off a memorable year when awarded the Matthew Burke Cup for the Waratahs’ Players' Player of 2012.

Dennis won three more caps the following season before yet another anterior cruciate injury - he ruptured the right ACL again - in the Waratahs’ 2014, 39-8 rout of the Brumbies. In 2015, Dennis suffered the heartbreak of being overlooked for a second Rugby World Cup. A year later Dennis became just the 11th Waratah to play 100 games for his state before he chose to leave Australian rugby for a stint with English Premiership club Exeter Chiefs.

Dave Dennis played 18 Tests for Australia in his two-year international career.

Highlights

2003 Selected in the Australian Schools’ squad for the Tests against Tongan Schools, Fijian Schools and New Zealand Schools.

2005 Selected in the Australian squad for the second-annual IRB U19s World Championship tournament in South Africa.

2012 Dennis won his first Test cap as a starting blindside flanker in the 6-9 loss to Scotland at Newcastle. He was then picked for each of the season’s remaining 14 internationals across the Welsh tour, the Rugby Championship, the Bledisloe Cup and the end-of-season Spring Tour.

2013 Dennis added three caps to his Test tally, firstly when he came off the bench in the 3rd Bledisloe Cup Test and then against Italy and Wales on the season ending Spring Tour.