Full name | Ernest Arthur Anlezark[1] | ||
---|---|---|---|
Date of birth | 29 December 1882[1] | ||
Place of birth | Bathurst, New South Wales[1] | ||
Date of death | c. 1956[1] | ||
Occupation(s) | Cotton broker | ||
Rugby league career | |||
Position | Five-eighth | ||
Professional clubs | |||
Years | Club / team | Caps | (points) |
1909-14 | Oldham Roughyeds | 114 | |
State Representation | |||
Years | Club / team | Caps | (points) |
1908 | Queensland | ||
National teams | |||
Years | Club / team | Caps | (points) |
1908 | Australia | 1 | |
Rugby union career | |||
Playing career | |||
Position | fly-half[1] | ||
Amateur clubs | |||
Years | Club / team | ||
1897-08 | Bathurst & Lismore | ||
Provincial/State sides | |||
Years | Club / team | Caps | (points) |
NSW Country New South Wales |
|||
National team(s) | |||
Years | Club / team | Caps | (points) |
1905[1] | Australia | 1[1] | (0)[1] |
Ernest Arthur "George" Anlezark (29 December 1882 - c. 1956), also went by 'Alec', was an Australian rugby league and rugby union player - a dual-code rugby international.
He was a pioneer Australian representative footballer selected in the first Australia national rugby union team overseas touring side to New Zealand in 1905 and representing the Kangaroos in the first Kangaroo tour of Great Britain in 1908.
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Born in Bathurst, New South Wales he played grade rugby for the district from age 14 in 1897. He was a regular in NSW Country and NSW representative teams before being selected as fly-half in Australia's first rugby union touring team which played a Test against New Zealand in Dunedin in 2 September 1905.[1]
Playing in the country, Anlezark found it difficult to re-gain selection to the Australian representative team in the following year, especially after moving to Lismore for his work with the NSW Railways. In 1908 he felt he was being unfairly overlooked.
Anlezark arrived in Brisbane in 1908 and first played rugby league for Queensland Maroons against a touring New Zealand Maori team. He then played against New South Wales in the first ever interstate fixture before being chosen for Australia in the inaugural international game against the New Zealand Māori.
He was selected in the pioneer Kangaroo touring side of 1908 and playing at half-back alongside Dally Messenger was badly injured in the first tour match against the Welsh team Mid-Rhondda.
Two months later in the 3rd Test against England which Australia lost 6-5, Anlezark made his debut Kangaroo Test appearance becoming at that point the 10th ever dual rugby-code Australian international. He captained Australia in the final four tour games of the trip.
Having been selected for Queensland on the strength of his rugby union credentials, Anlezark like made appearances for Queensland, an Australian touring side and an Australian Test side before he had ever played a club game. [2] The Brisbane club competition did not begin until 1909.[3]
Anlezark remained in England to play for the Oldham Roughyeds and made 114 appearances in six seasons up till commencement of the Great War. He was part of Oldham's Club Championship, Lancashire League and Lancashire Cup wins from 1909 to 1912. At the end of the 1908–09 Northern Rugby Football Union season Anlezark played at scrum half back in Oldham's loss to Wigan in the Championship Final.[4] He also played in the 1912 Challenge Cup final where Oldham were beaten 8-5 in a shock upset by Dewsbury.
He returned to Australia at commencement of World War I and became a cotton broker.