Jordan Atkins (born 22 January 1983) is an Australian former professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer who last played for the

London Broncos The London Broncos are a professional rugby league club based in Wimbledon, London, Wimbledon, England. They play their home games at Plough Lane and currently compete in the RFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of British rugby le ...

in the

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

. His positions of choice are at or .

Early life

Atkins was born in

Stanthorpe, Queensland Stanthorpe is a rural town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Southern Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Stanthorpe had a population of 5,286 people. The area surrounding the town is known as th ...

, Australia.

Early playing career

In 2004, Atkins travelled to the United Kingdom as a member of the Australian Universities rugby league team. He spent the 2006 and 2007 seasons playing with the

Burleigh Bears The Burleigh Bears are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Gold Coast, Australia. They compete in Queensland's top rugby league competition, the Queensland Cup. Since their admission to the competition in 1997, the ...

in the

Queensland Cup The Queensland Cup, currently known as the Hostplus Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the highest-level regional rugby league, rugby league football competition in Queensland, Australia. It is run by the Queensland Rugby League, Queensland Rugby ...

while studying for his teaching degree at the

University of Southern Queensland The University of Southern Queensland is a public research university based in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, the sixth largest city in the Australian state of Queensland Founded in 1967 after a successful campaign by the local Darling Down ...

Playing career

2008-10: Career with Gold Coast

Atkins made his first-grade début against the

North Queensland Cowboys The North Queensland Cowboys is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, the largest city in North Queensland. They compete in Australia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL). Sinc ...

in round one of the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

(NRL) 2008 season. Atkin's tally of four tries in that match equalled the standing record for most tries in an Australian first grade début set by Johnno Stuntz for Eastern Suburbs début 1908 season, which was the first match of the opening game of rugby league in Australia, and later Canterbury Bankstown's Tony Nash in the 1942 season.

2011-12: Career with Parramatta

In September 2010, Atkins signed a two-year contract with the

Parramatta Eels The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL). The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and ...

for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. Atkins played 12 games for Parramatta in the

2011 NRL season The 2011 NRL season was the 104th season of professional rugby league football club competition in Australia, and the fourteenth and last run by the National Rugby League's partnership committee of the Australian Rugby League and News Ltd. The ...

as the club narrowly avoided the wooden spoon. Parramatta managed to avoid the dreaded award by beating Atkins former club the Gold Coast in the final round of the year.

London Broncos

In February 2014, Atkins signed a one-year deal to play with

in England. Atkins retired at the end of the season.

References

External links

Elite Athletes at USQ

* ttp://www.rleague.com/db/player/a/atkins_jordan/index.php#stats Jordan Atkins at ''www.rleague.com'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Atkins, Jordan 1983 births Living people Australian rugby league players Burleigh Bears players Gold Coast Titans players London Broncos players Parramatta Eels players People from Stanthorpe, Queensland Queensland Residents rugby league team players Rugby league fullbacks Rugby league centres Rugby league wingers Rugby league players from Queensland Wentworthville Magpies players 21st-century Australian sportsmen