Herbert Michael "Paddy" Moran (29 April 1885 – 20 November 1945) was an Australian rugby union player, a state and national representative flanker who captained the Wallabies on their first overseas tour in 1908–09, and a medical practitioner and anti-cancer activist.

[4] He commenced his medical studies at Sydney University still aged 15 in 1901 and in 1903 started playing senior rugby with the Rose Bay club.

Howell points out that of the eight Australian players who had captained either the national, New South Wales or Queensland sides in the previous two years, two were at the end of their careers (Wickham and Richards), another two were out of form and not picked (Skeet Ahearn and Allen Oxlade), leaving four experienced captains in Wood, Burge, James Hughes and Cecil Murin.

[5] Howell suggests that the selectors may have favoured Moran with his medical degree and education above the other "more working class" candidates.

[5] In Viewless Winds however Moran speaks of a skill he possessed that may have impressed the selectors – a strategic understanding he brought to his captaincy (in terms of adapting play tactics for conditions and opposition weaknesses) which he says was not widely deployed by captains of the day.

He played against Somerset and then made his Test début against Wales at Cardiff Arms Park on 12 December 1908 at number eight – a match lost by Australia 6–9.

He figured in the Welsh tour matches against Newport, Abertillery, Swansea and Cardiff but then disaster struck on New Year's Eve 1909 when he slipped on ice while walking and sprained his ankle.

Moran writes in Viewless Winds that when the touring squad first arrived at Plymouth a pack of journalists were there who were anxious to give the team some distinctive name.

Moran wrote "The memory of that war cry provokes anger in me even after all these years.... We were expected to leap up in the air and make foolish gestures which somebody thought Australian natives might have used in similar circumstances and we were give meaningless words which we were to utter savagely during the pantomime....

"[9] He volunteered his services in England at the beginning of World War I and was made a Lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps.

He was appointed Surgeon Specialist on a hospital ship and sent to the Aegean, where he tended to soldiers wounded at the Landing at Suvla Bay.

[10] Moran didn't mince words when he wrote home to Australian newspapers from the WWI front: You must all come over if you want to win this war — ‘every man Jack’ of you.

If we lose we are out of the competition forever, and when we win we shall despise those who looked over the fence when our line was in danger.As an author Paddy Moran published three books: Viewless Winds – the recollections and digressions of an Australian surgeon (London, P Davies 1939); Beyond the hill lies China – scenes from a medical life in Australia (London, P Davies 1945); In my fashion – an autobiography of the last ten years (Sydney, Dymocks 1946).