Ernest Arthur "George" Anlezark (29 December 1882 – 14 May 1961), also known as Alec, was an Australian

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

and

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

player – a

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 Eng ...

.He was a pioneer Australian representative footballer selected in the first

Australia national rugby union team The Australia national rugby union team, nicknamed the Wallabies, is the representative national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of Australia. The team first played at Sydney in 1899, winning their first test match against the ...

overseas touring side to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in 1905 and representing the

Kangaroos Kangaroos are four 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 gre ...

in the first Kangaroo tour of Great Britain in 1908.

Rugby union career

Born in

Bathurst, New South Wales Bathurst () is a city in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia. Bathurst is about 200 kilometres (120 mi) west-northwest of Sydney and is the seat of the Bathurst Regional Council. Bathurst is the oldest inland settlement in ...

he was a regular in NSW Country and NSW representative teams before being selected as

fly-half In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16– ...

in Australia's first rugby union touring team which played a Test against

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

on 2 September 1905. 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.

Rugby league career

Anlezark arrived in Brisbane in 1908 and first played rugby league for

Queensland Maroons The Queensland rugby league team represents the Australian state of Queensland in rugby league football. Nicknamed the "Maroons" after the colour of their jersey, they play three times a year against arch-rivals New South Wales in the State of O ...

against a touring New Zealand Maori team. He then played against

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

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 Herbert Henry Messenger, nicknamed "Dally" and sometimes "The Master" (12 April 1883 – 24 November 1959) was one of Australasia's first professional rugby footballers, recognised as one of the greatest-ever players in either code. He played f ...

. Two months later in the 3rd Test against England which Australia lost 6–5, Anlezark made his début 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. Anlezark is listed on the Australian Players Register as Kangaroo No. 23. Having been selected for Queensland on the strength of his rugby union credentials, Anlezark made appearances for Queensland, an Australian touring side and an Australian Test side before he had ever played a club game. The Brisbane club competition did not begin until 1909. Anlezark remained in England to play for the

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham ...

( Heritage № 125) and made 114 appearances in six seasons up till commencement of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. 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 The 1908–09 Northern Rugby Football Union season was the 14th season of rugby league football in the United Kingdom. The governing body, the Northern Union (NU) decided to admit four extra clubs, all from Wales; Aberdare, Barry, Mid-Rhondd ...

Anlezark played at scrum half back in Oldham's loss to

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the north-east and Warrington t ...

in the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

Final. He also played in the 1912 Challenge Cup Final where Oldham were beaten 8–5 in a shock upset by Dewsbury.

After football

In 1914 Anlezark enlisted in the British Army and was assigned to the 66th Brigade Divisional Artillery. He saw active service against the Ottoman Empire during the

Mesopotamian campaign The Mesopotamian campaign was a campaign in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I fought between the Allies represented by the British Empire, troops from Britain, Australia and the vast majority from British India, against the Central Po ...

. After the War Anlezark returned to Oldham to become a cotton broker and investor on the Manchester stock exchange, but was bankrupted in a market crash in 1925. He remained in the U.K. for the rest of his life. He died at Crewe, England in 1961, aged 78.

References

* Sean Fagan, Sean (2005) ''The Rugby Rebellion'', RL1908, Sydney. * Whiticker, Alan & Hudson, Glen (2006) ''The Encyclopedia of Rugby League Players'', Gavin Allen Publishing, Sydney

External links

* http://www.RL1908.com * https://web.archive.org/web/20061130083415/http://www.rugbyrebellion.com/
Statistics at orl-heritagetrust.org.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anlezark, Ernest Arthur 1882 births 1961 deaths Australia international rugby union players Australia national rugby league team players Australian rugby league players Australian rugby union players Australian expatriate sportspeople in England British Army personnel of World War I Dual-code rugby internationals Oldham R.L.F.C. players Queensland rugby league team players Royal Artillery soldiers Rugby league five-eighths Rugby league players from Bathurst, New South Wales Rugby union fly-halves Rugby union players from New South Wales