Tommy Bedford’s biography, net worth, fact, career, awards and life story

Intro Rugby player
Is Athlete 
Rugby union player 
From South Africa 
Type Sports 
Gender male
Birth 8 February 1942, Bloemfontein
Age: 78 years
Star sign Aquarius

Thomas Pleydell ‘Tommy’ Bedford (born 8 February 1942 in Bloemfontein, South Africa) is a South African rugby union player who has represented the national team, the Springboks, 25 times, captaining the Springboks on 3 occasions.

Career

Tommy Bedford won the first of his 25 caps against Australia as a flank forward on 13 July 1963. Though he appeared as a 21-year-old flank forward in six Test matches, it was the number 8 position that established him as a player of outstanding quality on the international scene.

A very athletic and dynamic number 8 he formed a remarkably efficient and complementary back-row partnership with Jan Ellis and Piet Greyling. He made his debut against the Lions in an historic Test at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria – the first ever international in which replacements were allowed for injury, though no more than four players per team could be replaced in a match at the time. He played number 8 in all four Tests against the 1968 Lions with South Africa winning the tightly-fought series 3-0, with one drawn, when in both the first and third Tests the winning margin was only five points. The young Durban architect, who captained his provincial team Natal, also led his country three times, against Australia (twice) and Scotland on the 1969 tour to Britain and Ireland.

Despite his prowess as a player and captain, it is thought that his relentless and uncompromising criticism of the apartheid system and the rugby establishment contributed to a premature end of his playing career. He retired from international rugby after the drawn Test with France in Durban in 1971.

Professionally, he was an architect who, in 1965, was elected a Rhodes scholar.

Notes and references

Sporting positions
Preceded by
Dawie de Villiers 		Springbok Captain
1969		 Succeeded by
Hannes Marais
You May Also Like

Mark Goodman’s net worth, biography, fact, career, awards and life story

Mark Goodman Net Worth: Mark Goodman is an American radio DJ, TV personality and actor who has a net worth of $1.5 million. Born on October 11, 1952, in Philadelphia, PA, Mark Goodman has translated his success in the music business both to the small and the big screen in a career that spans over four decades. Having started in a local radio station in his hometown of Philadelphia, he eventually became the music director of the station in 1978. Two years later, Goodman moved to NYC to land a job at WPLJ, the number one rock station in The Big Apple. It was in 1981 that he left his post at WPLJ to join the still unknown music video channel MTV at the time. Thus, he got the chance to become one of the original five VJs on MTV, from 1981-1987. As a VJ, he conducted a great number of interviews with a wide range of music and entertainment stars of the day. Furthermore, he could be also seen hosting some special shows for the channel, like The Week In Rock, 120 Minutes, as well as the first show ever syndicated to broadcast by MTV: The Top 20 Video Countdown. He slightly neglected his hosting work in the late ’80s to pursue an acting career that saw him playing in both film and TV. Goodman starred in features like Police Academy 6: City Under Siege (1989) and Man Trouble (1992), while on TV, he made appearances in shows like Married With Children (FOX, 1987–1997) and The Practice (ABC, 1997–2004), among others. It was in the mid-2000s that Goodman returned home on VH-1 and VH-1 Classic, mostly doing interviews and hosting special programs while continuing to broadcast 7 days a week on SiriusXM Satellite Radio.
Read More