Charles Peter Crittle was a man for all seasons, on and off the rugby field

“The undefeated Sydney team of 1980,” he told me on Wednesday, “launched numerous Wallaby careers beyond mine, including the Ella brothers, the Cox brothers, Steve Williams, Michael Hawker, Declan Curran, John Coolican , Micky Martin, Lance Walker and Bruce Malouf, (Charlie’s nemesis!). It was ‘Charlie’ Crittle, our maverick, larger than life coach who got us there. Charlie called us, ‘mongrel dogs’ and drove the team relentlessly with training sessions of such intensity that numerous players had to put up the white flag begging that they could take no more.”

But they could, and did.

“Pre-game, he was the master motivator and, post-game, the master of fun. After beating Auckland at Eden Park in 1980, the Auckland coach said, ‘How do you respect a bloke who calls you all mongrel dogs?’ Our back-rower Don Price replied, ‘No, he calls us winners’. Charlie Crittle was larger than life and we all celebrate the privilege of being coached by such an extraordinary leader of men.”

Crittle coached me in the NSW team of 1983, and I remember him as Simon does, a very hard taskmaster at training and great fun off the field: loquacious, irascible, colourful. Alan Jones was the manager of that side, but there was no doubt who was running the show: Crittle. Personally, I will also never forget a riotous after-dinner speech he gave at the black-tie Rothmans Medal dinner at the Hilton Hotel in 1983, bringing the crowd to its feet at his conclusion – the first time I realised just how fantastic the game was off the field, how actually playing rugby was the least of the life it offered and how that life could go on, long after you’d hung up your boots.

Crittle was the exemplar of that notion, and the friendships he formed among his fellow Wallabies was the foundation of his rich life. This way of things was admittedly a little strained in the case of Wallabies prop Ross Turnbull, when Charlie’s second marriage was to Ross’ fine first wife, Trudy, but they … worked it out!

After coaching, Crittle served as president of the NSW Rugby Union throughout most of the ’90s. He was not always diplomatic in the role.

John O’Neill was the CEO of the Australian Rugby Union at the time, and remembers a summit meeting of Shute Shield heavies et al at the Rugby Club, formerly Crane Place.

“Yet again,” O’Neill recalls, “the debate was about forming a national competition and the like. The late, great, [journalist] Greg Growden had written some powerful stuff for the Herald. Crittle in his final speech to the heavies says, ‘And as for that communist, Growden, take no notice!’ The problem was, Greg was the only journalist sitting right outside the room and heard it all. Crittle emerged, saw Greg, and it was on! Greg didn’t hold back, and neither did Charlie.”

And a good time was had by all.

Becoming president of the ARU in the early 2000s, it was Crittle who presided over the 2003 World Cup, which led to him being made an officer of the Order of Australia for his services to rugby union.

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“He was wonderful in the role,” O’Neill says, “and a great statesman whose rugby friendships were legendary. He would regularly start his speeches with, ‘It’s great to see Syd Millar here, who I played against in 1962!’ CP Crittle was born to be president of the ARU during the hosting of the best RWC ever.”

Crittle received the 2005 Vernon Pugh Award for distinguished service from the International Rugby Board, and in 2021 was inducted into the Wallabies Hall of Fame, with his great second-row partner from back in the day, Rob Heming.

It was about that time that I last saw him, visiting him one evening at his retirement home in Pottsville on the NSW North Coast. Physically, he was ailing. Mentally, his recall of matches and identities, the fun they – and we – all had together was extraordinary. Saying Crittle was “an adornment to the game” doesn’t do him justice. He was the very heart of it, a man who was formed by its friendships and experiences, and gave back to it many times over. Vale, Charlie. You were a one-off.

This masthead sends its deepest condolences to his children, Tiffany, Tara, Shannon and Ashleigh and his siblings Mark, James, Catherine, Francesca and Natasha. The funeral is to be held on: Monday, July 15 at 1.30pm, St James Anglican Church, 173 King Street.

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