Ross Lindsay Birrell (17 December 1948 - 16 March 2015) was an Australian 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 played for the

South Sydney Rabbitohs The South Sydney District Rugby League Football Club, also known as the South Sydney Rabbitohs, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Maroubra, New South Wales, Maroubra that competes in the Nat ...

Biography

Born in 1948, Birrell started out as

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 ...

player and toured overseas with the Emerging Wallabies team, before making the switch to rugby league. Birrell was a member of South Sydney's first-grade team from 1972 to 1975, playing as a centre, fullback and winger. Occasionally he served as the team's goalkicker and amassed 17-points in a win over Balmain in 1972. During his time at South Sydney he also had a stint in England with

Hull Kingston Rovers Hull Kingston Rovers (often abbreviated to Hull KR) are a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England. The club play home games at Craven Park, Hull, Craven Park and compete in Super League, the top tier of B ...

. In 1976 he left South Sydney to coach the Wagga Magpies. Birrell died from cancer in 2015, at the age of 66. A real estate agent, he was the founder of Thornton Realty in Maitland, which he had established in 1996.

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Ross Birrell
at Rugby League project {{DEFAULTSORT:Birrell, Ross 1949 births 2015 deaths Australian rugby league players Hull Kingston Rovers players Rugby league centres Rugby league fullbacks Rugby league wingers South Sydney Rabbitohs players Place of birth missing Australian rugby union players New South Wales rugby union team players Footballers who switched code 20th-century Australian sportsmen