Joe Roff
Joe Roff (born 20 September 1975) is a retired Australian rugby union footballer and a product of the Tuggeranong Vikings Rugby Union Club in Canberra, who played on the wing or at fullback for ACT Brumbies and Australia and played 5 tests as a centre in the early part of his Test career. He also had a spell at the French club Biarritz and in 2005–6 at Kubota Spears in Japan's Top League Of his 86 caps, 62 were won in consecutive games from 1996 to 2001. His final game saw him captain Oxford against Cambridge in the 2007 Varsity Match.
| Date of birth | 20 September 1975 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Place of birth | Heathcote, Victoria | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 192 cm (6 ft 4 in)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 100 kg (15 st 10 lb; 220 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| School | The Armidale School Marist College Canberra | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| University | University of Southern Queensland University of Oxford | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Early life
Joe Roff is from Dubbo. Joe's early schooling included a stint a St Lawrence's Infant School Dubbo. For a time, he attended The Armidale School in Armidale, New South Wales. He was also a student at Marist College Canberra. Joe Roff's father, Glenn Roff, was Principal of St John's College, Woodlawn.
Rugby career
After a successful junior career he was selected at age 19 for Australia's 1995 Rugby World Cup squad, making his debut against Canada and scoring a try, followed by another 2 against Romania.
By 1996 he was a more regular feature in the starting test side before becoming a firm test player for the 1999 Rugby World Cup win and the back to back Tri Nations wins of 2000 and 2001. He was also a capable goal kicker, kicking 18 penalties and 20 conversions in his test career.
Roff scored the intercept try from Jonny Wilkinson's pass in the second British Lions Test in 2001. This turned the test in Australia's favour before they went on to win the game with Roff scoring a second try, squaring the series at 1-1.[2] They went on to win the series 2–1.
Until March 2007 he was the top try scorer in Super Rugby before he was overtaken by Doug Howlett. He also holds the record for most tries in a Super 12 season, scoring 15 in 1997.
Midway through the super 12 season of 2004 he announced that he would retire at the end of the domestic international season. He was just 29 years old and had spent 10 years playing Test rugby and amassed 86 test caps and 244 points. He farewelled the Brumbies in 2004 as the team took the Super 12 Final.
Education
Roff's secondary education was at The Armidale School in Armidale, New South Wales, and Marist College Canberra[3] that has a proud rugby tradition.
Roff was awarded a Bachelor of Applied Finance from the University of Southern Queensland.[3]
Oxford University
Roff matriculated at the University of Oxford, UK in October 2006 to read Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Harris Manchester College. He was also involved in the Oxford Union.[3]
He also made a return to amateur rugby by playing for the Oxford University (OURFC), colloquially known as the Dark Blues, representing the Blues in their traditional fixture against Cambridge at Twickenham Stadium on 12 December 2006. Oxford lost this match 15–6. On 6 December 2007, he captained the Blues to their third successive Varsity loss, losing 22–16 to Cambridge, before hanging up his boots for the last time.
Later career
In June 2012, the University of Canberra Union (student body) announced that Roff had been appointed as its CEO with effect from July 2012, noting that Roff was leaving a management position with Lifeline Australia and had previously been a consultant with The Nous Group.[3]
Other
In January 2007, he won the "United Kingdom-based Young Australian of the Year for 2007" for his services to Australian Rugby in general.[4][5] In 2018, Joe joined Canberra social mixed netball team 'A New Hope'. The team was runner up in the division 3 finals. He was voted Most Valuable Player for the season. During his years with the Wallabies, the rhyming slang term "Joe Roffie" gradually worked its way into the Australian vernacular, being an abbreviation for coffee.
References
- "2001 Australian Wallabies squad - British & Irish Lions Tour". rugby.com.au. Australian Rugby Union. Archived from the original on 22 September 2013. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
- "Australia batter wounded Lions". BBC. 7 July 2001. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
- UCU appoints Joe Roff as CEO, Amanda Jones, University of Canberra, 14 June 2012
- Roff is the UK`s `young Australian` Tuesday 30 January 2007 - Rugby News, Results, Fixtures and Features from Planet-Rugby.com Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- Australia Day Foundation Party 2007 (includes award photograph) Archived 26 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine