Scott Robert Gourley (born 18 July 1968) is an Australian former

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 ...

and

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 who played from 1986 to 1998 and achieved the status of a dual-code international representing his country in both sports. He made five Test appearances 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 ...

and switched to rugby league in 1990 playing for the

St George Dragons The St. George Dragons are an Australian rugby league, rugby league football club from the St George, Sydney, St George District in Sydney, New South Wales that played in the top level New South Wales Rugby League, New South Wales competition ...

, the

Sydney Roosters Eastern Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club, known as the Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Eastern Suburbs. The club competes in the National Rugby Lea ...

and making one Test appearance for the

Kangaroos Kangaroos are 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 grey ...

Background

Gourley was born in

Hornsby, New South Wales Hornsby is a suburb on the North Shore (Sydney), Upper North Shore of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia, approximately north-west of the Sydney central business district. It is the administrative centre of the Local government ...

, Australia, raised in Narrabri and attended Narrabri High School.Gourley at Classic Wallabies
/ref> He studied economics at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

. He is of Irish descent through his father, the former Irish rugby union international Robin Gourley, who played in the winning St George rugby league premiership winning sides of

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The First Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lynd ...

and

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

Rugby union career

Before moving to Sydney, Gourley captained the Australian Schoolboys rugby union side on their 1986 tour of New Zealand. His Sydney club rugby was played with the Eastwood RUFC. He was selected for the

1988 Australia rugby union tour of England, Scotland and Italy The 1988 Australia rugby union tour of England, Scotland and Italy was a series of fifteen matches played by the Australia national rugby union team (the Wallabies) in England, Scotland and Italy (with one match in Wales) from October to Decembe ...

and made his Test debut for the

against Scotland at Murrayfield scoring a try on debut. He played a Test against Italy on that same tour. He earned five international rugby union Test caps between 1988 and 1989 as a flanker. He was a prominent member of the side, with some fearsome displays of running against the touring British Lions in 1989. Gourley is remembered for a magnificent try scored in the first Test of that series at the

Sydney Football Stadium Sydney Football Stadium may refer to: * Sydney Football Stadium (1988), the original stadium which was demolished in 2019. * Sydney Football Stadium (2022) Sydney Football Stadium, currently known as Allianz Stadium for sponsorship reasons, i ...

, running through several tacklers to cross the line at the northern end of the ground.

Rugby league career

Switching to rugby league in 1990, Gourley joined the

where his father had played. Scott played 128 games for the Dragons from 1990 to 1996 including being in three losing grand final sides: 1992 and 1993 against the

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Red Hill, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos compete in the National Rugby League (NRL) and play their home games at ...

, and 1996 against Manly. In 1997, he joined the

and played 45 matches in his two seasons at the club.Gourley at the RL Project
/ref> Gourley represented

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

in 1991 in a Test series against

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. His international rugby league debut in the first Test against PNG in

Goroka Goroka is the capital of the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. It is a town of approximately 19,000 people (2000), above sea level. It has an airport (in the centre of town) and is on the " Highlands Highway", about from Lae in Mor ...

saw him become Australia's 39th

dual-code rugby international A dual-code rugby international is a rugby footballer who has played at the senior international level in both codes of rugby, 13-a-side rugby league and 15-a-side rugby union. Rugby league started as a breakaway version of rugby in Northern Engl ...

, following

Ricky Stuart Ricky John "Sticky" Stuart (born 7 January 1967) is an Australian professional rugby league football coach who is the head coach of Canberra in the National Rugby League (NRL) and a former rugby league footballer who played as a in the 1980 ...

and preceding Andrew Walker. He is the last Australian dual-code international to have debuted in rugby league following a rugby union representative career. All others since have made the converse switch. In addition to representing Australia, he was selected for

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

in one State of Origin match in 1993.

Personal

Following his retirement in 1998, Gourley became a private investor. In a 2011 interview he confirmed that due to his wife's business career he had chosen to be a stay-at-home father for his three children whilst managing personal share market and real estate investments.NRL Where Are They Now ?
/ref>

Footnotes

Sources

* Andrews, Malcolm (2006) ''The ABC of Rugby League'' Austn Broadcasting Corpn, Sydney

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gourley, Scott 1968 births Living people 20th-century Australian sportsmen Australia international rugby union players Australia national rugby league team players Australian rugby league players Australian rugby union players Country New South Wales Origin rugby league team players Dual-code rugby internationals Eastwood Rugby Club players New South Wales Rugby League State of Origin players New South Wales rugby union team players Rugby league players from Sydney Rugby league second-rows Rugby union locks Rugby union players from Sydney St. George Dragons players Sydney Roosters players