Gene Fairbanks (born 8 August 1982, in

Goondiwindi Goondiwindi () is a rural town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Goondiwindi Region, Queensland, Australia. It is on the border of Queensland and New South Wales. In the , the locality of Goondiwindi had a population of 6, ...

, Australia) is a retired professional Australian

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

footballer. He played for the

Reds Reds may refer to: General * Red (political adjective), supporters of Communism or socialism * ''Reds'' (film), a 1981 American film starring and directed by Warren Beatty * Reds (January Uprising), a faction of the Polish insurrectionists duri ...

Brumbies The ACT Brumbies (known from 2005 to 2022 as simply the Brumbies) is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), The team competes in Super Rugby and named for the feral horses which inh ...

, and

Force In physics, a force is an influence that can cause an Physical object, object to change its velocity unless counterbalanced by other forces. In mechanics, force makes ideas like 'pushing' or 'pulling' mathematically precise. Because the Magnitu ...

in the

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

competition as well as for

Kintetsu Liners Hanazono Kintetsu Liners are a Japanese rugby union team owned by Kintetsu Corporation which was founded in 1929. They have won the All-Japan Championship three times as an amateur team. Their home is at Hanazono Rugby Stadium, which was also ...

in Japan. A devastating defender his usual positions were inside centre or fly-half.

Career

His primary schooling was at St Mary's Goondiwindi where he excelled at sport, particularly athletics with his naturally talented brothers under his coach, Principal Bernard Holland. In secondary school he was educated at

Downlands College Downlands College, officially named Downlands Sacred Heart College, is a private, Primary school, secondary, coeducational, day and boarding school at Harlaxton in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia. Founded by the Missionaries of the Sacred H ...

in Toowoomba, Fairbanks played his senior club rugby for

Easts Tigers The Brisbane Tigers are a rugby league club based at Langlands Park, in the suburb of Coorparoo in Brisbane, Australia. Since 1996, they have competed in the Queensland Cup, having competed in the Brisbane Rugby League premiership (rugby league ...

and was invited to join the Reds Rugby College in 1997. He made his Super 12 debut for the

Queensland Reds The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team based in Brisbane for the Australian state of Queensland that competes in the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996, they were a representative team selected from the rugby union ...

in 2003 in a match against the Chiefs in

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

. Later that year he was selected in the Australian Under 21s team. His 2004 season for the Reds was troubled by a foot injury he sustained in the pre-season. Fairbanks signed with the Brumbies for the 2005 season, scoring a try on debut against the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

and he went on to earn eight caps for the season, starting in seven of those matches. He played in eleven of the Brumbies' matches of the

2006 Super 14 season The 2006 Super 14 season started on 10 February 2006. The Grand Final was held on 27 May 2006. Super 14 is a provincial rugby union competition with 14 teams from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. This season was the first of the expansion, ...

, and was subsequently included in the 2006

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 ...

squad. After the 2009

Super 14 Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

season, Fairbanks signed for the Japanese team

Honda Heat Mie Honda Heat is a Japanese rugby union team based in Suzuka City, Mie Prefecture, Japan. The owner of the club is Honda Motor. (Suzuka is known for the Suzuka Circuit and the presence of car companies. Conveniently, the team uses Suzuka to jog ...

for the 2009–10 Top League season, playing seven matches. He secured a two-year deal with the

Western Force The Western Force is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, currently competing in Super Rugby, Super Rugby Pacific. They previously played in Super Rugby from 2006 until they were axed from the competitio ...

, and played eight

games in 2011, but was hindered by niggling injuries and did not play for the Force in 2012. Fairbanks moved to Japan at the end of 2012, joining the

Top League Japan Rugby League One (), formerly known as the Top League (), is a rugby union competition in Japan. It is the highest level of professional rugby competition in the country. The Japan Rugby Football Union created the competition in 2003, by ...

club

, where he played for three seasons. He now lives in Bowral, New South Wales.

Reference list

External links

stats
on It's Rugby *
Gene Fairbanks
on brumbies.com.au

on sarugby.com

in The Australian 5 October 2006 {{DEFAULTSORT:Fairbanks, Gene 1982 births Australian rugby union players ACT Brumbies players Western Force players Queensland Reds players Mie Honda Heat players Hanazono Kintetsu Liners players Living people Rugby union centres Rugby union fly-halves Australian expatriate rugby union players in Japan Rugby union players from Queensland People from Goondiwindi People educated at Downlands College Australia international rugby union players 21st-century Australian sportsmen