John Williams Maund

A fullback, John Maund was another product of All Saints College at Bathurst. While at College he played for Western Districts, the first schoolboy to represent the area, but in Sydney he played for Eastern Suburbs. He became a solicitor. His first taste of the demands of representative rugby occurred in 1901, when he was a member of the NSW side that year that toured New Zealand for a seven-match schedule in August and September. They were known as the ‘Cornstalks’ in those days.

The team was led by Glebe’s Tom Costello. Maund played fullback against Wellington in the first match. Chester and McMillan, in The Visitors, have chronicled the tour. He was noted as being 12 st 1 lb, which meant he was rather solid. Chester and McMillan describe Maund’s first match: “McMahon and Maund were steady under pressure during the opening period of the match … As the wing was tackled by Maund the ball spilled clear…. Late in the [first] half New South Wales suffered a setback when their fullback, John Maund, was injured stopping a forward rush and had to retire.” He was back into action in the third match against Otago, and in the fourth match against Canterbury, John Maund had a knee injury. Chester and McMillan noted: “It was decided to risk Maund in the match and he started at halfback but he did not fare well and so dropped back to fullback. Maund continued to be little better than a passenger and Canterbury eventually allowed him to be replaced by Finley.”

Because of his injury he could not play in the following two games but reappeared in the final match against Auckland. Chester and McMillan wrote: “Good performances were put up by the captain Bill Shortland, Finley and Maund.’ In 1903 New Zealand toured Australia and John Maund was selected as fullback. He was also in the second NSW match, and as a consequence of his performances he was selected in the only Test in that year. It would turn out to be the sole Test match of his career. He would, however, play for Metropolis against Britain in their 1904 tour. Jack Verge of Sydney University had taken over as Australia’s top fullback at this time. In his excellent history of the Eastern Suburbs Club Eddie Kann wrote: ‘Throughout these big games Maund’s splendid defence compared favourably with Billy (‘Carbine’) Wallace, NZ full-back of the highest class.” An oddity is described by Kann, in that in 1902 John Maund was playing for Easts against Sydney University, and one of their forwards was A.W. Ross , whose namesake would become one of Australia’s greatest-ever fullbacks. In 1902, when he toured Queensland, Maund wrote: “There seemed to be as many officials as players on the trip. The officials ate oysters and drank whisky on the train but the players didn’t get any.” His brother, E.W.Maund, and his son Rod, would play for Easts in later years.