David Pocock

He spent his first year on a citrus estate, "Denlynian", in Beitbridge, Zimbabwe, which was bought by his grandfather Ian Ferguson in the 1960s and ultimately employed up to 300 people.

He was born in South Africa at the hospital nearest to his parents' home which was in Zimbabwe.

When Pocock was a child, his parents moved north to Gweru and joined his paternal grandfather and uncle on a 2800 ha mixed farm, growing vegetables and flowers for export and also running cattle.

He attended Midlands Christian College where he began playing rugby.

He defeated Liberal incumbent Zed Seselja, ending the two major parties' duopoly on the ACT's Senate delegation which had been in place since the ACT was granted Senate representation in 1975.

David Willmer Pocock (born 23 April 1988) is an Australian politician and former professional rugby union player.

Raised in Gweru, Zimbabwe, Pocock moved to Australia as a teenager and played for the Australia national rugby team.

He played primarily at openside flanker, and was vice captain of the Brumbies in Super Rugby.

After his retirement, Pocock worked as a conservationist and social justice advocate.

In the 2022 Australian federal election, Pocock ran as an independent candidate for one of the Australian Capital Territory's two Senate seats.

Pocock was born on 23 April 1988 in Messina, South Africa.

He is the oldest of three sons born to Jane (Ferguson) and Andy Pocock.

In 2000, following Robert Mugabe's seizure of white-owned farms in Zimbabwe, Pocock's parents applied to immigrate to Australia.

They were soon given a notice of compulsory acquisition requiring them to vacate their property within 90 days, after which they stayed in a family holiday home in Port Alfred, South Africa, for eight months.

They received Australian visas in 2002 and settled in Brisbane.

Pocock was educated at the Anglican Church Grammar School in Brisbane.

In 2005, he played in the school's undefeated premiership-winning 1st XV alongside future Australia teammate Quade Cooper.

That same year, he was selected to play in the Australian Schoolboys team.

Pocock played for the Force, where he made his debut in 2006 against the Sharks in Durban.

Pocock made appearances for Australian Schoolboys and Australia A in the 2007 IRB Pacific Nations Cup, earning man of the match multiple times in the tournament.

He then made his Australia debut as a substitute against the Barbarians on 3 December 2008.

Pocock made his test debut in Hong Kong against New Zealand in late 2008, and then played against Italy and the Barbarians on the Wallabies spring tour.

That same year he also captained the Australian Under 20s at the Junior World Championships in Wales, and was then awarded the Emirates Western Force captaincy for the development tour of England.

In 2009 Pocock played 13 Super Rugby games and was again called up to the Wallabies Squad.

The year 2009 was a breakthrough year, during which he featured in 13 of the 14 Tests played by Australia – including a man of the match effort in the drawn Test against Ireland at Croke Park, as well as a maiden Test try during the 33–12 win over Wales at Cardiff.

Pocock had earlier started the year by scoring his first try for his adopted country during the 55–7 win over the Barbarians in a non-cap match in Sydney.

As a credit to his improving performance in the game Pocock replaced longstanding Wallaby openside flanker George Smith, late in the 2009 Tri-Nations.

In the Wales test in the 2009 Autumn Internationals, he put his thumb back into its socket after it had been dislocated and continued to play.

He was, however, substituted at half-time and replaced by George Smith.

In 2010, Pocock became the first choice openside flanker for the Wallabies.

He won the John Eales Medal in 2010 – the highest honour in Australian Rugby.

Pocock was recognised at an international level after being nominated alongside five other players for 2010 IRB Player of the Year, an award given to the best player in world rugby.

In addition he was recognised with the Australia's Choice Wallaby of the Year and awarded the Rugby Union Players Association (RUPA) Medal of Excellence.

In both 2010 and 2011, Pocock was a finalist for the IRB International Player of the Year.

Pocock took over the Wallabies captaincy during the 2012 midseason test series when regular captain James Horwill was injured.

At the conclusion of the 2012 Super Rugby season, he left the Western Force to join the ACT Brumbies.

In 2013, he underwent a knee reconstruction, and Michael Hooper became the Wallabies first choice number 7.

In 2014, in the course of his third game back after knee reconstruction, he damaged his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and had another knee reconstruction in late March 2014.

On 15 January 2015, Pocock and teammate Nic White were appointed vice-captains of the Brumbies for the 2015 Super Rugby season.

He played in all three games during the 2015 Rugby Championship, Australia won all those games and won the trophy for the first time since the 2011 Tri Nations Series.