Herbert Leslie Collins was an Australian cricketer who played 19 Test matches between 1921 and 1926. An all-rounder, he captained the Australian team in eleven Tests, winning five, losing two with another four finishing in draws. In a Test career delayed by First World War he scored 1,352 runs at an average of 45.06, including four centuries. Collins was also a successful rugby league footballer, winning the 1911 NSWRFL season's grand final with the Eastern Suburbs club. A professional bookmaker, he was widely known as "Horseshoe" Collins due to his consistent luck with horse racing and cricket coin tosses. He was a distinguished member of the Australian team in England during 1921.

Collins was one of the more popular Australian captains of the post-war era. Hardened by his time in the army, Collins emerged as the logical choice to lead the country following the removal of Warwick Armstrong. In 16 Ashes encounters, Collins scored four centuries at an average of just over 40. His patient approach was a source of inspiration for his younger teammates, who took comfort in his unflappable technique.

Collins was born in Darlinghurst, an inner suburb of Sydney. He attended Albion Street Public School, where he showed an aptitude for cricket and rugby union. He played his early cricket with Paddington Cricket Club, bowling left arm spinners and batting well enough to be selected at 19 for the New South Wales cricket team. He made his first-class cricket debut against South Australia in 1909/10, scoring three and one and taking 1/35. He played one further match for the season, against Victoria. For the next two seasons, his opportunities at first-class level were limited but he played against the touring South African and English.

Collins also played first grade rugby league at this time in the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership. He played at five-eighth in Eastern Suburbs' grand final win of the 1911 NSWRFL season alongside the great Dally Messenger. Collins's first full season for NSW was in 1912/13, playing ten matches and scoring 598 runs at an average of 42.71. He finished the season with 282 against Tasmania at Hobart. In 1915 Collins was one of 417,000 Australians who enlisted and was a member of the First Australian Imperial Force (AIF) as a reinforcement for the Australian Light Horse. He served in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign and later on the Western Front, carting ammunition to the artillery shelling the German lines.

Collins was a keen gambler, a pastime that became habitual during his time as a soldier in the Great War. After the war, he played with the Australian Imperial Forces cricket team (AIF XI) that toured England, South Africa and Australia and was later appointed captain of the team. He was not a stylish or forceful batsman, preferring to rely on nudges and deflections to score runs. His slow left arm off-spin, bowled from a two step run up, was seldom seen after the AIF XI tour. Test cricket returned from its hiatus in 1920 with the English touring Australia. On return to Australia, he made his Test debut against England at the SCG, scoring 104 in the second innings; the fifth Australian to score a century on Test debut. He was appointed captain of the Australian team in 1921 in South Africa, when the previous captain, Warwick Armstrong, fell ill.

The Australians toured England in 1921, the first representative tour since the disastrous 1912 Triangular Tournament, and won the series comprehensively, three Tests to nil. On the return trip to Australia, the Australian team stopped in South Africa for a short tour. In the second Test of the series, Collins scored a remarkable double century (203) on the matting pitch at the Old Wanderers ground in Johannesburg, unearthing a range of shots he had rarely used. With Gregory, who scored 119, the pair put on a partnership of 209 in 85 minutes, destroying the South African bowling. In six matches played, Collins scored 548 runs, including two centuries at an average of 60.88.

The next international visitors to Australia were the English team of 1924/25, under the captaincy of Arthur Gilligan. In the First Test at Sydney, Collins opened the batting and scored 114. Batting with a young Victorian in his début Test, Bill Ponsford, Collins sheltered him from the brilliant swing bowling of Maurice Tate. Ponsford went on to make a century (110) on debut. The Adelaide Test was a thriller with England needing 27 runs to win with two wickets in hand. Collins, ever the gambler, threw the ball once again to Mailey, who was not known for his accuracy or containment. The gamble paid off with Mailey dismissing Tich Freeman and Gregory removing Gilligan at the other end to win the Test by eleven runs and secure The Ashes. During the Adelaide Test, Collins was approached by a "well known racing identity" who offered him £100 to throw the match. Collins rejected the approach and suggested to teammate Arthur Mailey that they throw the visitor down the stairs.

The 1926 tour of England would be Collins's last. Partly as a result of a wet English summer, the first four Tests of the five-Test series ended in draws. Collins had a disappointing tour, suffering from neuritis and in constant pain from arthritis. He missed the Third and Fourth Tests when admitted to hospital but recovered to resume his place as captain for the Fifth Test. The Fifth Test, played at the Oval, saw England win the toss and bat. They compiled 280, Mailey taking five wickets. Collins attracted a great deal of negative attention by using the inexperienced Arthur Richardson as a main strike bowler at the expense of the likes of Mailey and Clarrie Grimmett. Australia were dismissed for 125, losing the match by 289 runs. The Test was to be Collins's last.

Such was the disappointment at losing the Ashes, Collins was stripped not only of the New South Wales captaincy but also that of his local club, Waverley. Former players, including his former Waverley captain, the influential Monty Noble, publicly criticised Collins' captaincy. Hunter Hendry, viewing the Fifth Test from the stands, suspected Collins threw the match. Despite his reputation as a gambler, there is no material evidence that Collins ever fixed the result of any cricket match.

Collins was an enthusiastic gambler, renowned by his teammates for finding any reason to bet. Mailey stated that Collins's haunts "were the racetrack, the dog track, a baccarat joint at Kings Cross, a two-up school in the Flanders trenches and anywhere a quiet game of poker was being played”. Collins was known for all-night poker sessions before going out to open the batting but refused to play poker against his fellow cricketers, seeing no challenge in taking money from novices. He turned his interest in gambling into a career, taking out a bookmaker's licence for a period and he served as a steward at pony races in Sydney. Neither role appealed to him as much as acting as a commission agent for other bookmakers. Collins would "lay-off" for bookmakers over-committed on certain horses, placing large bets carefully and with cool calculation. He won and lost two fortunes on the track and at one stage required the assistance of the New South Wales Cricketers Fund to support him.

Collins re-enlisted in the Australian Army during the Second World War, stationed at Victoria Barracks with the rank of sergeant. In 1940, aged 51, he married 24-year-old Marjorie Paine, the daughter of a race steward. The marriage produced a son before ending in divorce eleven years later. After his divorce, Collins continued to frequent gambling clubs at Kings Cross, participating in all-night poker sessions. Despite giving up smoking late in life, his lungs failed him and he died of cancer in 1959, aged 70.