Retired Australian international rugby player Matthew Coleman Burke or as he is commonly referred to as Matt Burke is an award-winning fullback currently working as a sports anchor for an Australian tv station.

Personal Life

Matt was born and bred in the suburbs of Carlingford in Australia’s capital of Sydney. The 45-year-old born in March 26th 1973 as documented in his biography attended St Gerard Majella Catholic Primary School in his home town of Carlingford before joining St Joeseph's College located in Sydney suburb of Hunters Hill in New South Wales. Matt maintains his personal life privately but he is married to his wife of 16 years Kathy Burke.

Career

Growing up in Carlingford Matt played mostly soccer at a tender age and he was also a sprinter and attributed his kicking skills and pace to his formative years as a footballer and sprinter. His first taste of rugby came in 1990 for the Australian Schoolboys team and played as goal kicking center for the team. He later joined the Eastwood rugby league team to ply his club rugby where he kicked on his budding career.

He was closely tied to the Australian rugby set-up with the under 21 side playing in the world cup of 1993 in the sevens format of the game as well as participating in the Hong Kong sevens circuit. Matt made his senior debut for the Wallabies first team in 1993 for their third test match in the series against the Springboks of South Africa. Progressing well in the first team as a fullback and a kicker, he ebbed his name in history books for scoring one of the most impressive solo tries in the Bledisloe cup against the All Blacks of New Zealand.

Injury however, affected his growth as he sat out for a year with a groin injury eventually returning in 1998 to a record breaking night scoring a whopping 24 points all by himself helping his team win against New Zealand for the first time in Wallabies history ending a 5-year dominance by the All Blacks. Injury hampered most of his career and had to work harder to make the team that won the 1999 rugby world cup trophy.

Due to recurring injuries Matt lost his starting place in the national team and his club as well. In the 2003 rugby world cup he regained his starting place but his form was not up to standard as well as age was catching up with him leading to him being eventually dropped in the tournament.

Going back to club rugby in 2004 after retiring from international duty he joined the NSW Warratahs though he did not last long as he lost his super rugby contract with the NSW Warratahs, eventually moving to England to play for the Newcastle Falcons for the remainder of his rugby career retiring in 2008 after failing to recover from an injury. Currently he is a sports broadcaster with Sydney's Ten Eyewitness News. Matt’s net worth an estimated $2 million.