George W Watson (6 January 1885 – 1961) was an Australian

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

and pioneer professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

footballer and was one of the first Australian dual code rugby international representatives. He was also one of the pioneer Queensland executives behind the new code in 1908.

Rugby union career

Watson represented for the

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and som ...

as a winger in the 1907 Test against the touring

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, ...

in a team captained by Peter Burge.

Rugby league career

A foundation player at the establishment of the professional code in Sydney in 1908 he played one game only for the

Kangaroos Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

, the 2nd Test against New Zealand in Brisbane in May 1908. This was the 2nd international rugby league appearance by an Australian side. Watson played that day in the centres outside of the legendary

Dally Messenger Herbert Henry Messenger, nicknamed "Dally" and sometimes "The Master" (12 April 1883 – 24 November 1959) was one of Australasia's first professional rugby footballers, recognised as one of the greatest-ever players in either code. He played f ...

. Five former Wallabies had debuted for the Kangaroos in the inaugural Test three weeks earlier, Watson's league Test debut that day with

Bill Hardcastle William Robert Hardcastle (30 August 1874 – 11 July 1944) born in Wellington, New Zealand was a pioneer New Zealand and Australian rugby union player and an Australian rugby league footballer. He represented both countries in union and Austra ...

made them the 6th and 7th Australian dual code internationals. Since his sole rugby league Test appearance was made as a 1908 rebel before a Brisbane club competition began in 1909, Watson like Doug McLean, Snr. was a Kangaroo with no rugby league club career.

References

* Andrews, Malcolm (2006) ''The ABC of Rugby League'', Austn Broadcasting Corpn, Sydney * Whiticker, Alan (2004) ''Captaining the Kangaroos'', New Holland, Sydney {{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, George 1885 births Australian rugby league administrators Australian rugby league players Australia national rugby league team players Australian rugby union players Dual-code rugby internationals Australia international rugby union players Queensland rugby league team players 1961 deaths Rugby union players from Brisbane Rugby union wings