Reg Gasnier

 

Reg Gasnier, known as Puff the Magic Dragon and often tagged the Prince of Centres, started his first grade career with St George in 1959 at the age of 18.

Such was his genius that after only five first grade matches, he was selected to play for NSW and then, a couple of weeks later, Australia.

At the end of 1959 he was an automatic selection for the Kangaroo tour. His three tries and inspirational play in his Test debut at Swinton was instrumental in the Australian victory - the first time the Australians had won at Swinton.

Gaz was the youngest player to captain Australia. He led the Australians in the first Test in Brisbane in 1962. The following year, the young gangling kid from Wollongong - Graeme Langlands became his centre partner in the record breaking Kangaroo Tour of England and France. The scribes ran mad with talk of the centre combination of Gasnier and Langlands, referring to them as 'precious cargo'. In the First Test, won by Australia 28 - 2, they scored the majority of points and Chang, when discussing this game says,

"I keep thinking about Gaz scoring those tries with his head back. Just as if he was saying, 'See ya'."

Reg Gasnier had amazing acceleration and the memory still remains of seeing him run with his head back swerving through a gap and dashing over for another try for Saints or Australia.