Gerald Venables Kyrke (7 September 1882 – 8 March 1932) was an English international

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 ...

forward who played club rugby for

Marlborough Nomads The Marlborough Nomads was a 19th-century English rugby union club that was notable for being one of the twenty-one founding members of the Rugby Football Union. They also supplied a number of players for the sport's early international fixtures. ...

and was selected for the 1908 Anglo-Welsh tour of New Zealand and Australia.

Rugby career

Kyrke played much of his rugby with Marlborough Nomads, one of the earliest English rugby clubs, based in London. When Kyrke was offered a place on a tour with invitational team, the

Barbarians A barbarian is a person or tribe of people that is perceived to be primitive, savage and warlike. Many cultures have referred to other cultures as barbarians, sometimes out of misunderstanding and sometimes out of prejudice. A "barbarian" may ...

in 1903 he was already a Nomads player, and was still with the club at the age of 26 when he was invited to tour with the 1908 Anglo-Welsh team. The Anglo-Welsh was an early incarnation of the British Lions and the 1908 team was assembled to tour New Zealand and Australia. Kyrke played twelve games for the Anglo-Welsh team, including one Test Match. His first game for the team was on 25 May 1908, facing

Wairarapa The Wairarapa (; ), a geographical region of New Zealand, lies in the south-eastern corner of the North Island, east of metropolitan Wellington and south-west of the Hawke's Bay Region. It is lightly populated, having several rural service t ...

on the opening game of the tour.Gerald Kyrke Lions profile
lionsrugby.com He played in the First Test against

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, but after a heavy defeat he was not chosen for the remaining two Tests of the tour. Despite this he continued to play against club and regional teams and scoring a try in the encounter with a joint West Coast/ Buller team in July. Although Kyrke toured with the Anglo-Welsh, he was never chosen to represent England.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kyrke, Gerald 1882 births 1932 deaths People from Chard, Somerset English rugby union players Rugby union forwards British & Irish Lions rugby union players from Wales Barbarian F.C. players Rugby union players from Somerset