Mark Ella AM was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1987 as an Athlete member for his contribution to the sport of rugby union and was elevated to Legend in 2023.
Ella’s brief but spectacular career as one of the Wallabies’ greatest five-eighth playmakers stamped him as one of the code’s most significant figures
One of a trio of Indigenous brothers to represent their country, Ella played 25 rugby union Test matches for Australia. He also captained the Wallabies on ten occasions.
Ella began his representative rugby career when he was selected to play in the 1977 Australian Rugby Schoolboy team alongside his brothers Gary and Glen (his twin), which toured England, Ireland, Wales, Holland, France and Japan undefeated.
From 1978 to 1984, he played for the Randwick Rugby Club (with all three brothers starting together in 1978), including six premierships.
He played in the Australian Sevens Team from 1979 to 1984, winning three Hong Kong Championship trophies and he was named player of the tournament in 1981.
In 1979 Ella competed for Australia for the first time on the Wallabies’ tour to Argentina before making his Test debut in 1980 in Sydney against New Zealand, kicking a field goal to help Australia to a 13-9 win.
He represented Australia in 25 tests between 1980 and 1984, becoming the captain in 1982 on a tour of New Zealand when Australia lost the series despite winning the second Test.
In 1983 he captained Australia on a tour of Italy and France, and in home Tests against the USA, Argentina and New Zealand.
In his final Test season, the Grand Slam tour of Britain and Ireland, Ella scored a try in each of the four Test matches against England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales – a feat never performed before by a touring player.
He stunned the rugby union world when he retired, aged only 25.
Mark Ella was a trailblazer who flashed like a comet across the rugby union sky, as one of the code’s greatest playmakers who ultimately left the crowd wanting more.
The high point of his spectacular career also happened to be one of his signing off points, when he scored a try in each of the four tests on the 1984 tour of Great Britain and Ireland, his own ‘grand slam’ within the broader Grand Slam of test victories abroad.
Then he stunned the rugby union world when he retired a few months later, closing out a career which saw him compared to the greatest players to have ever played the game.
Ella was one of seven boys and five girls who grew up in the Sydney suburb of La Perouse, with a passion for sport and competition.
He initially flirted with rugby league before settling on rugby union at Matraville High School where he and his brothers Glen (his twin) and Gary came under the tutelage of sports master Geoff Mould.
The team became one of the most successful junior sides in the country, winning the Waratah Shield in 1976 and 1977. Three of the Ella brothers were selected for the Australian Schoolboys tour of Japan, France, the UK and The Netherlands in 1977-78, going undefeated.
They all went on to play with Randwick in 1978.
Ella was selected on the Wallabies tour of Argentina in 1979, and while he didn’t play a test on the tour, he represented his country in tour matches.
He got his chance to play his first test in 1980 against New Zealand, famously saying that his mum fainted when told her son was making his debut. In the third test of the series he produced a stunning ‘round-the-body’ pass that stamped him not only as a star of the future, but a significant player of the present.
His freakish ability to read the patterns of play, his exquisite ball-handling skills and his explosive manner made him one of the most exciting players to watch.
He was elevated to the Australian captaincy in 1982, providing an inspiration to the Indigenous community and he was also named Young Australian of the Year
Ella would hold the role for two years and lead the Wallabies on 10 occasions.
He led a tour to New Zealand in 1982, and a 1983 tour of Italy and France as well as home tests against USA, Argentina and New Zealand.
He also played in five successive premierships with Randwick, with the hopes of securing a sixth narrowly missed when his late attempt at a field goal just missed.
He lost the captaincy for the tour of Great Britain and Ireland in 1984, with new coach Alan Jones opting for Andrew Slack, believing the leadership role may have been impacting Ella’s game.
Ella elevated his game to a higher plain on that tour, proving one of the masterminds of the Wallabies’ historic set of wins against all four Home Nations on the one tour. He scored a try in each of the four tests, completing his own ‘grand slam’ in the Grand Slam of victories.
It was to be a stunning farewell kiss to Australian rugby as months later the fly-half/five-eighth called time on one of the most remarkable careers, aged only 25, and with so much left to give.
Years later, Ella would tell Athletes Voice: “Why did I retire? I had better things to do. I never wanted to play forever. I’d told my wife and friends and most of the people at Randwick knew that win, lose or draw, I was going to retire.”
He resisted the temptation to return to international competition as well as dismissed huge financial offers to transfer to rugby league.
Mark Ella did return briefly for Randwick four years later to help them secure another title. But his contribution to the game, to the Indigenous community whom he inspired, and to the nation he represented so well carried on well beyond his playing career.
He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1987 and was named as one of the five first inductees in the Australian Rugby Union Hall of Fame in 2005. Ella was inducted into both the International Rugby Hall of Fame, 1997, and the World Rugby Hall of Fame, 2013, before they were merged in 2014.
The man whom David Campese declared the greatest rugby union player he had ever seen left Australian sports fans wanting more. While some have long wondered what might have been if Ella had played on, most have been content to celebrate his considerable achievements in his short but inspired dominance of the code.
Following his playing career Ella coached Italian club in Milan, Amatori, which was funded by future Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi. Ella would coach the club to a flag in his first year as coach.
Honours & Awards
1982: Named Young Australian of the Year
1984: Made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM)
1987: Inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame
2013: Inducted into International Rugby Hall of Fame Inaugural XV
2013: Inducted as Inside Rugby’s first Invincibles
