Champion Wallabies captain John Eales competed against some of the strongest men in the world during his playing career, but he has revealed his mother was the real source of his strength in a moving tribute after her death.
Rosa Eales died on October 31 at the age of 88 and Eales has written a moving obituary for her.
Eales was one of the greatest to ever lace up the Wallabies’ boots and was the last Australian captain to taste Bledisloe Cup success against the Kiwis.
He played 86 Tests for the Wallabies from 1991 to 2001, captaining 55 of them and leading Australia to World Cup glory in 1999.
However, in a stunning revelation, Eales wrote that he didn’t want to play rugby as a child and had begged his mother to take him out while she was in hospital after the birth of his sister Rosaleen.
John Eales is pictured with his mother Rosa in front of the statue erected in his honor at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane
‘The only rugby matches I had seen were between the Wallabies and the All Blacks and it all looked too rough for a kid who wasn’t very tough. On the way to Kenmore we visited Rosa in the hospital,” he wrote News Corp.
‘Knowing contact sports weren’t her thing either, I waited until Jack left the room before seizing the moment.
“Mum, Dad is taking me to play rugby, and I don’t want to play,” I said. “You HAVE to get me out.”
She replied, “John, I’m sorry, there’s not much I can do from here. Come with Dad today and we can talk about it afterwards.’
Fortunately for the Eales family – and Australian rugby – John went to that match and began what would become a stellar career at Ashgrove Emus. [later GPS Juniors].
Eales was a two-time World Cup-winning Wallabies star during his playing days
Rosa, however, was a much tougher sell. She would only attend two rugby matches that John played before he became a Wallaby.
She attended an under-10s grand final that Eales and his teammates lost, and another match that featured an all-in brawl.
Even when Eales started playing club rugby, she was always a mother first and a footy supporter second.
“At 5am one morning in September 1990 I came home after winning the Rothman’s Medal in the Brisbane Club Rugby competition,” Eales remembers.
“After I walked through the front door, my mother scolded me as I shamelessly walked through the foyer and down the stairs.
‘She turned the corner into my room and lowered her voice: ‘Oh, and by the way, congratulations, honey!’. Mothers never really clock off.’
By the time Eales had started his international career, Rosa had finally been converted and watched every match with her rugby circle.
“If ever proof was needed that Rosa was a convert, she would occasionally fetch balls for me when I was doing some extra kicking practice at the West Mitchelton rugby league oval near our house,” Eales wrote.
‘But it wasn’t just me. Rosa helped everyone, and everyone who met her was struck by the power of her goodness and gentle humility.
“Of course, she didn’t dare believe that she had anything to teach anyone, and that’s exactly why she had so much to teach everyone.
“She rarely preached, but practiced regularly, and if her practice was love, her mark was kindness.”
Life was often challenging with six siblings living on one teacher’s salary, but it became a real tragedy when they lost one of their own.
“The two most difficult moments of Rosa’s adult life were the enormous weight of losing her daughter Carmel to Hodgkins’ disease at age 20, and her husband Jack, almost 20 years ago, to melanoma,” Eales wrote.
“It was her faith; in Catholicism, in herself and in her family, that pulled her through.
“Rosa left this world on October 31 at the age of 88, and her legacy lives on through her five children, their spouses and her fourteen grandchildren.
‘I am convinced that a large part of the art of dying lies in the dignity of letting go. Don’t give up, because Rosa never did – she fought the good fight.
“But eventually, when she faced the inevitable, she let it go with clarity, peace, dignity and contentment. If there is beauty in death, this was it.’