Glen Mathew Panoho

Born in New Zealand and of Maori heritage, Glen Panoho was a strong scrummaging prop forward, adept at playing both on the loose and tight-head sides of the scrum, and a great team man. Panoho moved to Australia aged 12 and attended Brisbane’s prestigious Nudgee College. He went on to represent Australia at schoolboy, U19 and U21 levels.

In 1993, Panoho made his provincial debut with the Queensland Reds against Fiji at Ballymore but as with many front row forwards he settled in for extended apprenticeship at State level before taking the next step to national honours.

The opportunity to take that next step came in 1998 when he was selected to make his Test debut against South Africa in Johannesburg. Over the course of his 21 Test, six-year international career Panoho was a part of the golden era of Wallaby rugby. In 1998 he played in Australia’s first 3-0 clean sweep of a Test series against New Zealand, in 1999 he was a member of the World Cup winning squad and in 2000 he enjoyed Australia’s first Tri Nations title.

Highlights

1989

Selected in the Australian Schools squad for their tour of New Zealand.

1992

Represented Australian U21s against New Zealand U21s in the 10-20 loss at Ballymore.

1998

Panoho made his Test debut off the bench when he replaced Andrew Blades at tight head prop in the 15-29 loss to South Africa in Johannesburg. He earned a first run-on XV cap, also at No.3, in the 74-0 Rugby World Cup qualifier win over Tonga in Canberra. Panoho finished the year with a total of five Test caps.

1999

Panoho earned four caps, three as the starting loosehead prop but was not initially selected to the Rugby World Cup. While he received a late-call up to the squad, Panoho did not play a match during the tournament. Nonetheless he did return home as a World Champion.

2000

Panoho played a career high nine Tests, all of them as a replacement, as he covered both sides of the scrum for the combination of Fletcher Dyson and Richard Harry and then Dyson and Bill Young.

2001

Panoho started at No.3 in the opening Test of the British & Irish Lions series in Brisbane but sustained compressed neck fractures that ruled him out for the rest of the season.

2003

Panoho won the final two caps of his career at the back end of the Tri Nations tournament. He came off the bench in the 29-9, 2nd Test win over South Africa in Brisbane and he started at tighthead in the 17-21, 2nd Test loss to New Zealand in Christchurch.