Fullname: Matthew James Giteau
Nickname: Gits Height: 1.78m Weight: 85kg Date of Birth: 29 September 1982 Place of Birth: Sydney Marital Status: Single
RUGBY CAREER
Playing Position: Inside Centre/Flyhalf Juniors: St Edmund's College School: St Edmund's College Colts: Easts, Canberra Senior Club: Canberra Vikings State: ACT Brumbies 2003 - 2005 Super 12 Debut: 2003 v Sharks in Durban (Brumby Number 73) Debut Super 12 try: 2003 v Bulls in Canberra Test Debut: 2002 v England (Wallaby Number 781) Major Rep Honours: ACT Under 19s 2001, Australian Sevens 2001-2002, Australian Under 21s 2002, Australian Wallabies 2002-2004 Awards:
2003 - ACT Back of the Year, Australian Super 12 Rookie of the Year.
2004 - Try of the Year (John Eales Medal Night) Nominations:
2003 - Australian Rookie of the Year (John Eales Medal Night).
2004 - IRB Player of the Year
Career Statistics ACT Caps: 31, Points: 119 (15T, 10C, 8P) Super 12:Caps: 31, Points 119 (15T, 10C, 8P) Super 12 Finals:Caps: 2, Points: 5 (1T) Tests:Caps: 30 Points: 173 (11T, 25C, 23P)
2002 - Eng (rep), It (rep).
2003 - SA2 (rep), NZ 2 (rep), Arg (rep), Rom (rep) [1t], Nam [3t], Ire
(rep), Sct (rep), Eng (rep).
2004 - Scot [1t], Eng, PI [2t], NZ [1C], SA
[1C, 2P], NZ [4P], SA [2C], Scot [4C, 1P], Fr [2P], Scot [1T, 3C, 1P], Eng [3P].
2005 - Sam [5C], It [1T, 6C], Fr [1P, 1C], SA [2T, 1C, 1P], SA [1P], SA [1C, 3P], NZ [2P, 1C], SA [1P]. FR,
After making his Test debut before even playing in a Super 12 match in
2002, it wasn’t long before Matt Giteau started making a name for
himself. Although he once regarded rugby as plain weird, he seems destined to be a Wallabies superstar in the years to come.
Giteau was schooled at St Edmunds College, Canberra’s
premier union school (former students include G. Gregan). At school he
played both union and league, but for 11 of his school years he
favoured league. His father being former Canberra Raiders and Western
Suburbs player Ron Giteau, and Giteau Snr. also played at local club
level for Queanbeyan. Matt followed him into league where he played
several positions including centre, five-eighth, halfback and
hooker. He loved league but was no fan of union. He thought it was
dumb, too weird, unnecessarily baffling. "I played rugby but I didn't enjoy it," Giteau said during the World Cup. "For
the first couple of years at school it was all a little bit strange and
I thought, this is ridiculous. There were just these little things I
didn't like about union. However, I gradually started to get it and
eventually enjoyed it."
In his final years he had to make a
choice between league and union. He was told that if he wanted to play
for the First XV, he had to give up league. "At
Eddie's, you get brought up in the whole atmosphere that the First XV
is the be-all and end-all. I gave it [league] up and didn't go back,"
Giteau said. With it came the start of cheeky sledging between father and son, which hasn't ceased to this day. "When
dad heard I was playing union, he just called me soft. But he added
that he'd back me in whatever I wanted to do, for which I'm grateful.
My father still stirs me up, that's not going to stop. He loves his
league. That's not going to change, and fair enough. But he's also
pretty proud of what I've been doing at the moment. He doesn't really
give me any advice. But if things are not going that well and I was
down in the dumps, I know he'd probably help me out, which is nice to
know."
Giteau’s rise has been spectacular,
the start of 2002 he was playing international Sevens, then onto the
U21 World Cup in South Africa, then he was playing scrumhalf in a Colts
Grand Final with Canberra club Easts, then in his 1st season
of club rugby he became an integral part of the premiership winning
Canberra Vikings team playing in the QLD Club Rugby competition and the
final step was when he got plucked out of obscurity to play for the
Wallabies on their Spring Tour of Europe and Argentina where the
Wallabies suffered a lot of injuries that led Eddie Jones having to select Matt on the bench against England.
As
for his rapid Test baptism at senior level, he says: "Coming on at
Twickenham against England was pretty daunting. I got about ten
minutes, and it was a tough game, so I was overwhelmed. It was great to
make my debut in such an important game, although I would liked to have
played a bit better. Against Italy the next week I can’t even remember
how long I was on the pitch, it was all a bit of a blur, but I enjoyed
getting more time out there."
After
the tour, the ACT Brumbies signed Matt on a 1 year deal, the fact that the Brumbies had the most capped
combination in the halves didn’t deter him, it made him keen to learn
from the masters. "I’m only young, so it doesn’t bother me too much,"
said Giteau. "My aim for the season is really only to get in the squad
of 22 for the Super 12 games on a reasonably consistent basis. Yeah, in
the long run I want to nail down a specific position, but I’ve got
stacks of time to worry about that. If
you’d asked me this time last year that I would be capped by the
Wallabies and sign full-time with the Brumbies in the space of 12
months, I’d have laughed in your face. Last season I was watching the games with my mates and enjoying a beer with the fans. This year I’m going to be playing."
He
made his Super 12 debut coming on as a replacement against the Sharks
in Round 2, Giteau was then thrown into the starting lineup at flyhalf
for the Round 3 clash with the Cats in Johannesburg when Larkham was
ill. He then made his presence felt in the number 12 jersey, where he
established a great combination with Larkham, relegating
veteran inside centre Pat Howard to the bench. His defence was reliable
and strong but it was his ability to run with the ball and his pace and
acceleration that threatened oppositions defence. His great debut
season unfortunately ended against the Crusaders in Week 12 with a knee
injury preventing him from playing in the semi vs the Blues and he
also missed out on the chance of getting a couple of a
Wallaby jerseys with Larkham also injured.
He
was named the Australian Super 12 Rookie of the Year and ACT Brumbies
Best Back in 2003, which led him to sign with the Brumbies for a further 3
years. Giteau was then selected for the later Tri Nations matches and
World Cup 30-man squad. Where he was used mainly as an impact player
off the bench, but in the Wallabies thrashing of Namibia in Adelaide, starting
at flyhalf he managed to score one of the quickest ever hat-trick
of tries (13 mins). He was also named on the bench in the
Final and when he came on as blood bin replacement for Larkham he
became the youngest Australian ever to play in a World Cup Final.
After
the World Cup, it was time to start thinking ahead to the 2004 Super 12
season, where coaching staff were going to move Giteau to flyhalf and
Larkham to fullback, but with disappointing pre-season trial results
this plan was abandoned with Giteau moving back to inside centre for
the season opener against defending champions the Auckland Blues. This
marked a new partnership between him and outside centre turned winger
Clyde Rathbone with each of them setting up tries for one and another
in the matches to come.
The
Brumbies ended the round robin part of the tournament on the top of the
table. The Brumbies won their semi against the Waikato Cheifs and were
to to meet their arch-rivals the Canterbury Crusaders in the final. The
Brumbies exploded out of the blocks in the final, including a Giteau
try to take the team to a 33-nil lead, but the Crusaders fought back to
end up losing 9 points with the final score being 47-38. The Brumbies
were then deservedly crowned Super 12 2004 CHAMPIONS!
Following
another impressive season of Super 12 and a broken hand to Elton
Flately, Matt was named to start at inside centre against Scotland for
the 1st Test and he played well also scoring his 5th Test
Try but unfortunately he was sick the following week and
had to pull out the morning of the 2nd Test. Matt returned
at inside centre to play against England in the Rugby World Cup Final
replay and a bonus was that his childhood friend Matt Henjak was
to be joining him for the first time after being named aon the bench. Matt Giteau again played strongly not missing a
tackle and was joined on the field in the dying minutes by Henjak.
Next, was the inaugraul match against the Pacific Islanders, where Matt
again excelled scoring 2 excellent tries but the 29-14 win to the
Wallabies was mared by inuries to several key players including
Joe Roff. With the injury to Roff it was announced Matt would take over
the kicking duties. Unfortunately with horrible conditions and poor
option taking the Wallabies went down to New Zealand 16-7 but
Matt set up the Wallabies only try to Mortlock and converted it. Next the Wallabies faced
the South African Springboks in Perth where a try to former South
African Under 21 Captain Clyde Rathbone in the 71st minute sealed the 30-26 win, with
Matt kicking 3 goals. The next match was against the All Blacks in
Sydney, the Wallabies put in an impressive performance winning 23-18
with Matt kicking another 4 penalty goals. Then it was the Tri Nations
decider which was won by the South Africans 23-18, Matt kicked 2
conversions and missed 1 penalty goal and played well on a
losing team.
After the letdown of losing the Tri Nations decider the Wallabies had
some time off before heading off for a 4 match tour of Europe.
Their first assignment on Tour was to beat an understrength Scotland
(as many European Clubs had not realeased players) at Murrayfield in
Edinburgh. The Wallabies won 31-14 thanks to 2 Rathbone tries and
Matt's five goals from five attempts including 3 sideline conversions.
Despite scoring 28 points in the first half with some patches of
brilliance, the Wallabies looked flat and made far too many handling
errors. Next up was a much harder assignment of beating a French team
that was undefeated in 2004, the Wallabies didn't change this fact,
losing 27-14 but Giteau kept his 100% kicking record on Tour intact
kicking 2 from 2 penalties. Before having to leave the field early in
the 2nd half with an injured knee which put him in doubt for the next
match where the Wallabies returned to Scotland this time to take on a
full strength Scotland at Hampden Park Glasgow. Giteau was passed fit
and the Wallabies won 31-17 playing their best match on tour so far,
Giteau scored a try in the the 64th minute, he kicked 3 conversions and a penalty. The moment of the
match was in the 74th minute
a break by Chris Latham seemed over when he was ankle tapped but he
popped the ball to Giteau who juggled it back to Gregan to allow the
skipper a clear run to the try line. The final assignment on tour
was for Matt to return to the scene of his debut in 2002, Twickenham.
This time the Wallabies wanted to seal their first victory at
Twickenham since 1998 which thanks to two late penalties kicked
nervlessly by Giteau they did. Giteau played most of the match at
Number 10 after Larkham broke his hand vs France and his replacement
for the match Flately went off in the 23rd minute with a leg injury, he
showed us a glimpse of the future as he ran rings around the English
defence, his part in Jeremy Pauls' Try was masterful. (December 2004)
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