Lonnie Spragg

Alonzo Stephen "Lonnie" Spragg (2 October 1879 – 12 February 1904) was a rugby union player who represented Australia.

Lonnie Spragg
Birth nameAlfonso Stephen Spragg[1]
Date of birth(1879-10-02)2 October 1879[1]
Place of birthRedfern, New South Wales[2]
Date of death12 February 1904(1904-02-12) (aged 24)[1]
Place of deathBrisbane
Height178 cm (5 ft 10 in)[2]
Weight73 kg (11 st 7 lb)[2]
Occupation(s)Banking
Rugby union career
Position(s) centre[1]
Amateur team(s)
Years Team Apps (Points)
1900–1904 Norths Brisbane ()
Provincial / State sides
Years Team Apps (Points)
1898–1899
1900-??		 NSW
Queensland		 ()
National team(s)
Years Team Apps (Points)
1899[1] Australia 4[1] (17)[1]

Spragg, a centre, was born in Redfern, New South Wales[2] and claimed four international rugby caps for Australia. He did not start playing rugby until he was seventeen and two years later he made his Test debut was against Great Britain, at Sydney, on 24 June 1899, the inaugural rugby Test match played by an Australian national representative side. Due to funding constraints he was one of only six New South Wales players (with Charlie Ellis, Hyram Marks, Bob McCowan, Peter Ward & Robert Challoner) selected to make the trip to Brisbane four weeks later for the second Test.[3] Zavos describes Spragg as a "crack three-quarter" and a "brilliant outside back".[4] He quotes contemporary commentators describing Spragg as "possessing rare gifts, denoting a special aptitude for the game.....a splendid kick, either place or drop and eager and capable on defence"[4]

Spragg was also a state representative oarsman, and a cricketer who captained the Norths Brisbane Cricket Club.[5]

Spragg died in February 1904 at the age of 25, from appendicitis and peritonitis.[5] A memorial was erected at Toowong Cemetery to his memory.[6]

Spragg (front row, far left) in the inaugural Australian rugby union team 1899

Published references
  • Collection (1995) Gordon Bray presents The Spirit of Rugby, Harper Collins Publishers Sydney
  • Howell, Max (2005) Born to Lead – Wallaby Test Captains, Celebrity Books, Auckland NZ

Footnotes
  1. "Scrum.com player profile of Lonnie Spragg". Scrum.com. Retrieved 12 July 2010.
  2. Spragg, Alonzo Stephen (Lonnie) (1879–1904) – Australian Dictionary of Biography
  3. Howell p19
  4. Zavos p95
  5. "DEATH OF MR. S. A. SPRAGG". The Brisbane Courier. National Library of Australia. 13 February 1904. p. 7. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
  6. "SPRAGG MEMORIAL". The Brisbane Courier. National Library of Australia. 21 July 1904. p. 6. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
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