Greg Pierce - Representative Career

Representative Career

On the night of Cronulla's Grand Final loss to Manly the 1973 Kangaroo Tourists were announced and Pierce leapfrogged the usual City and NSW selection ladder to be named in the squad. He made his representative debut in the first Test against France in Perpignan in the process becoming Cronulla's first national representative player. He played one Test and seven minor matches on the tour.

Pierce played in the 1975 and 1977 World Series for a total of five World Cup appearances.

In 1978 Pierce captained both the City representative side and New South Wales before being announced captain for the trans-Tasman series against New Zealand. His captaincy was a surprise to the critics and to himself since Bob Fulton was also in the side with over ten Test appearances under his belt to that stage and ten years club captaincy experience.

Pierce captained Australia to a 24-2 victory in the first Test of that series becoming the first Cronulla player to do so. Steve Rogers is the only other Shark to have done so since.

Pierce was replaced by Queenslander Lew Platz for the second Test. The Whiticker source suggests this was so that the captaincy could be easily handed to Fulton since the selectors were then thinking about the upcoming year end Kangaroo Tour.

Pierce was back as vice-captain in the third Test of that 1978 series against New Zealand and was also announced as vice-captain for the 1978 Kangaroo Tour. He appeared in four matches before a knee injury cut short his tour and prevented any further Test appearances.