Brendan
Cannon

Brendan Cannon is a retired Australian former rugby union hooker who also played for the national side. Find out more about his career with RugbyPass.

Brendan Cannon Bio

Brendan Cannon is considered to be one of Australia’s finest hookers, thanks mainly to his resolute and determined style of play and despite the fact his career was plagued by injury.

Brendan Cannon was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and played rugby union as a youth for a number of schools. At age 20 he was involved in a traffic collision which almost prevented him from playing rugby. Thankfully he recovered and managed to continue his career with provincial side Queensland - and the Queensland Reds - who he had only just signed for. He remained here for six seasons before leaving to join New South Wales Waratahs in 2000.

Brendan Cannon spent another five years with the Waratahs, before finishing his career with one final season at Western Force. However, his retirement was premature and came from medical advice following a severe neck injury.

As well as playing in the provincial tournaments, his time with the Reds, Waratahs and Western Force saw him make over 100 collective appearances in what was the Super 12 and Super 14 competitions (now Super Rugby Pacific).

Brendan Cannon did represent Australia at U19 and U21 level but he made his senior international debut for the Wallabies in 2001 coming off the bench to play against the British & Irish Lions on their Australian tour. He would go on to have a successful time with the Wallabies including helping them to a Rugby World Cup win in 2003 and gaining selection for a number of tours. He made his final appearance for Australia in 2006 in a test match against Italy, giving him a total of 42 caps.

After his retirement, Brendan Cannon has been involved in a number of charity initiatives and has worked as a pundit and commentator for Australian television.