1959–60 Kangaroo tour

The 1959–60 Kangaroo tour was the tenth Kangaroo tour, in which the Australian national rugby league team traveled to Europe and played thirty-seven matches against British, French and Italian teams, including the Ashes series of three Test matches against Great Britain, two Test matches against the French and an additional two non-Test matches against an Italian representative team. It followed the tour of [1956-57 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain Lions|Great Britain and France|1956-57] and the next was staged in 1963-64.

The squad's leadership

The team was coached by Clive Churchill. The team captain was Balmain Tigers Keith Barnes while the vice-captain was Manly-Warringah's dual rugby international forward Rex Mossop. Tour co-managers were Jack Argent and Ern Keffer.

In the five matches in which neither Barnes nor Mossop played, the Kangaroos were captained by five different players: Harry Wells, Brian Hambly, Brian Clay, Brian Carlson and Billy Wilson.

Touring squad

The Rugby League News published a and details of the touring team including the players' ages and weights.

Match details - listing surnames of both teams and the point scorers - were included in E.E. Christensen's Official Rugby League Yearbook, as was a summary of the players' point-scoring.

Beattie, Boden, Kelly, Muir, Parcell, Paterson and Rasmussen were selected from Queensland clubs. Chapman, Hambly, Parish and Walsh were selected from clubs in New South Wales Country areas. The balance of the squad had played for Sydney based clubs during the 1959 season.

Player		Age	Weight	Club	Tests on Tour	Games	Tries	Goals	FG	Points
Keith Barnes		24	11 st. 10 lb.	Balmain	8	22	0	101	0	202
Dud Beattie		23	15 st. 0 lb.	Ipswich Railways	4	20	0	0	0	0
Ron Boden	,	21	12 st. 6 lb.	Toowoomba Valleys	0	14	5	0	0	15
Tony Brown		23	12 st. 0 lb.	Newtown	2	9	4	0	0	12
Bob Bugden		23	11 st. 10 lb.	St George	0	5	4	0	0	12
Peter Burke		25	11 st. 2 lb.	Manly-Warringah	1	13	9	0	0	27
Brian Carlson	Utility Back	26	13 st. 0 lb.	North Sydney	4	23	19	49	0	155
Darrel Chapman		21	11 st. 6 lb.	Kempsey	1	18	3	0	0	9
Brian Clay	,	25	13 st. 3 lb.	St George	6	20	4	1	0	14
Bill Delamare		23	15 st. 0 lb.	Manly-Warringah	2	19	5	0	0	15
Reg Gasnier		20	12 st. 5 lb.	St George	6	19	20	0	0	60
Brian Hambly	,	22	14 st. 6 lb.	Wagga Magpies	8	21	9	1	0	29
Ken Irvine		19	11 st. 12 lb.	North Sydney	3	21	17	0	0	51
Noel Kelly	,	23	13 st. 9 lb.	Ipswich Brothers	1	14	2	1	0	8
Eddie Lumsden		22	13 st. 2 lb.	St George	8	27	25	0	0	75
Rex Mossop	,	30	14 st. 5 lb.	Manly-Warringah	5	26	2	0	0	6
Barry Muir		21	10 st. 11 lb.	Brisbane Western Suburbs	7	21	1	0	0	3
Gary Parcell		26	14 st. 6 lb.	Ipswich Brothers	5	20	2	0	0	6
Don Parish		21	11 st. 7 lb.	Dubbo Macquarie	0	12	7	16	0	53
Jim Paterson	,	23	14 st. 6 lb.	Townsville Souths	3	22	4	0	0	12
Johnny Raper	,	20	13 st. 2 lb.	St George	4	17	14	0	0	42
Elton Rasmussen	,	22	15 st. 5 lb.	Toowoomba All Whites	3	20	4	1	0	14
Johnny Riley		20	12 st. 0 lb.	St George	2	15	2	0	0	6
Ian Walsh		25	13 st. 4 lb.	Eugowra	8	23	3	1	0	11
Harry Wells		27	14 st. 6 lb.	Western Suburbs	7	22	11	0	0	33
Billy Wilson		30	14 st. 1 lb.	St George	6	19	2	0	0	6

Great Britain

The largest non-test attendance of the tour was 29,156 when the Kangaroos defeated St. Helens at Knowsley Road.

Test Venues

The three Ashes series tests took place at the following venues.

Swinton	Leeds	Wigan
Station Road	Headingley	Central Park
Capacity: 40,000	Capacity: 35,000	Capacity: 48,000

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The Ashes series

The Ashes series against Great Britain saw an aggregate crowd of 91,604 attending the Test series. The largest attendance of the tour came during the Kangaroos 22-14 first test win over Great Britain at Station Road in Swinton with 35,224 in attendance.

First Test

The first Ashes series test was played at Station Road, Swinton and drew the tours largest attendance of 35,224. Australia won the first test 22-14 with Reg Gasnier playing in his first ever test match against Great Britain named as the man of the match with 3 tries.
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5 days prior to the match against Bradford Northern, the Kangaroos played the first test against France.
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Second Test

The Kangaroos went within one penalty goal of becoming the first All-Australian team to win The Ashes on British soil and the first touring side to win The Ashes since 1911-12. However, the Lions survived and the series would go on to a deciding 3rd test.
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Third Test

This would be the final time that Great Britain would win the Ashes on home soil.

France

The first two games of the French leg of the tour were actually played while The Kangaroos were still completing the British leg.

First Test

Australia won the first test against the French at the Parc des Princes in Paris. Kangaroos winger Eddie Lumsden crossed for 3 tries while legendary winger Ken Irvine made the first of 33 test appearances for Australia.
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The game against the French Army XIII was played 4 days before the third Ashes test against Great Britain
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Second Test

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Third Test

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Italy

To finish the tour, the Kangaroos played two games against an Italian representative team.
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