Chris McQueen (born 3 August 1987) is an

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

international

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 112 ...

footballer who plays as a or for the

Huddersfield Giants Huddersfield Giants are an English professional rugby league club from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, the birthplace of rugby league, who play in the Super League competition. They play their home games at the John Smiths Stadium which is sh ...

in the

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

. He previously played for the

Wests Tigers The Wests Tigers are an Australian professional Rugby league, rugby league football team, based in the Inner West and South West Sydney. They have competed in the National Rugby League since being formed at the end of the 1999 NRL season as a j ...

Gold Coast Titans The Gold Coast Titans are a professional rugby league football club, based on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australia and New Zealand's national rugby league club competition. The ...

and the

South Sydney Rabbitohs The South Sydney Rabbitohs are a professional 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 pla ...

in the

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

, winning the

2014 NRL Grand Final The 2014 NRL Grand Final was the concluding and premiership-deciding match of the 2014 NRL season. Played on the evening of Sunday 5 October 2014 at ANZ Stadium, the match was contested by the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Canterbury-Bankstown B ...

with the

Rabbitohs The South Sydney Rabbitohs are a professional Australian rugby league club based in Redfern, New South Wales, Redfern, a suburb of inner-southern Sydney, New South Wales. They participate in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and are ...

. He played for the

Prime Minister's XIII Prime Minister's XIII, or sometimes informally referred to as the PM's XIII, is the name of a representative rugby league team, comprising Australian players from National Rugby League clubs that did not qualify for the NRL Finals, or whose tea ...

and

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

in the

State of Origin series The State of Origin series is an annual best-of-three rugby league series between two Australian state representative sides, the New South Wales Blues and the Queensland Maroons. Referred to as “Australian sport's greatest rivalry”, the ...

and played as a er and earlier in his career. despite finishing on the losing side with

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

McQueen was awarded the

Lance Todd Trophy The Lance Todd Trophy is a trophy in rugby league, awarded to the annual Challenge Cup Final's man of the match. Introduced in 1945–46, the trophy was named in memory of Lance Todd, the New Zealand-born player and administrator, who was killed in ...

after being named player of the match in the

2022 Challenge Cup Final The 2022 Challenge Cup Final was the 121st final of rugby league's Challenge Cup knock-out competition, which was contested between Huddersfield Giants and Wigan Warriors. It took place on 28 May 2022 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Wigan won ...

Background

McQueen was born in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, Australia. He grew up in country town of

Kingaroy Kingaroy is a rural town and locality in the South Burnett Region, Queensland, Australia. The town is situated on the junction of the D'Aguilar and the Bunya Highways, north-west of the state capital Brisbane and south west of Gympie. As a ...

. McQueen played his junior rugby league for the Kingaroy Red Ants. He is the nephew of Australian former Olympic swimmer

Geoff Huegill Geoffrey Andrew Huegill (born 4 March 1979) is an Australian swimmer and dual Olympian who won seventy-two international medals, including two medals in Olympics and six world champion titles, throughout his career. He held eight world records, i ...

. McQueen moved to Brisbane in 2006 to join the

Wynnum Manly Seagulls The Wynnum-Manly Seagulls are an Australian rugby league football club based at Kougari Oval, in Brisbane's bayside suburb of Manly West, which neighbours the suburb of Wynnum. They competed in the Brisbane Rugby League from 1951 to 1997. Since ...

, where he progressed through their Colts system to the

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

competition. In 2006, his first year playing with the Wynnum Manly Colts side, the team made the grand final, losing to a

Norths Devils The Northern Suburbs Devils, or North Brisbane Devils, or often simply referred to as Norths for short, are a rugby league club representing the northern suburbs of Brisbane, Australia. The team colours are sky blue, navy blue and gold. They pl ...

team that featured future NRL stars

Israel Folau Israel Folau ( to, ‘Isileli Folau; born 3 April 1989) is an Australian professional rugby union footballer who plays for the Shining Arcs in the Japan Rugby League One and the Tonga national rugby union team. He has previously played Aust ...

and

Will Chambers William Chambers (born 26 May 1988) is an Australian professional rugby union footballer who previously played for the LA Giltinis in Major League Rugby (MLR) in the United States. After winning two titles with the Melbourne Storm, he retired ...

Playing career

Early career

He played 9 Queensland Cup games in 2007 and cemented his spot in the starting side in 2008, playing 19 games. In 2008, he signed a two-year contract with the

South Sydney Rabbitohs

McQueen joined South Sydney in 2009 and spent the majority of the season playing for the Rabbitohs feeder team, the

North Sydney Bears The North Sydney Bears is an Australian rugby league football club based in North Sydney, New South Wales. The club competes in the New South Wales Cup, having exited the National Rugby League following the 1999 NRL season after 90 years in the ...

in the

New South Wales Cup The NSW Cup, currently known as the Knock-On Effect NSW Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a rugby league competition for clubs in New South Wales. The competition has a history dating back to the NSWRFL's origins in 1908, starting off as a reserve ...

competition. He made his NRL debut in Round 22 of the 2009 season, days after his 22nd birthday. A late call up to the side, McQueen played on the wing and scored a try in South Sydney's 36–22 win over the

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. The team colours are maroon and white, while their namesake and logo is the sea eagle. They compete in Australia's premier rugb ...

. Due to injury, McQueen missed the entire 2010 season. He returned to first grade in 2011, playing almost every game for the South Sydney side, switching between wing and second row, and was named in

Australia's Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by a ...

34-man Four Nations train on squad. Later that year he represented the

against

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

In 2012, he began the season again at wing, before making a permanent switch to second row. In 2013, McQueen cemented his spot in the South Sydney starting side. In 2012 and 2013, he was a member of Queensland's Emerging Origin Squad. In 2013, he made his

State of Origin A State of Origin competition is a type of sporting event between players representing their state or territory. State of Origin began in Australian rules football on 8 October 1977 between Western Australia (WA) and Victoria, at Subiaco Oval ...

debut for

. He played all three games of the

2013 State of Origin series The 2013 State of Origin series was the 32nd time the State of Origin series, annual best-of-three series between the Queensland rugby league team, Queensland and New South Wales rugby league team, New South Wales rugby league teams was played ent ...

in which Queensland extended their record for consecutive series victories to eight. On 5 October 2014, McQueen was selected to play for South Sydney from the interchange bench in the

2014 NRL Grand final The 2014 NRL Grand Final was the concluding and premiership-deciding match of the 2014 NRL season. Played on the evening of Sunday 5 October 2014 at ANZ Stadium, the match was contested by the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Canterbury-Bankstown B ...

, helping them to a 30–6 victory over the

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facilita ...

. On 26 September 2015, McQueen again played for the Prime Minister's XIII against Papua New Guinea.

Gold Coast Titans

On 11 December 2015, McQueen signed a two-year contract with the

starting in 2016, after being released from the final year of his Souths contract.

Wests Tigers

On 12 April 2017, it was announced that McQueen would join the Wests Tigers on a three-year deal, starting in 2018. McQueen started off the 2018 season playing for

Intrust Super Premiership NSW The NSW Cup, currently known as the Knock-On Effect NSW Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a rugby league competition for clubs in New South Wales. The competition has a history dating back to the NSWRFL's origins in 1908, starting off as a reserv ...

side Western Suburbs after being unable to break into the starting 17 for The Tigers. After spending the first 10 games in reserve grade, McQueen was called up to The NRL side for their Round 11 clash against Penrith. McQueen was limited to only six games for the

in the

2019 NRL season The 2019 NRL season was the 112th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 22nd season run by the National Rugby League. The Sydney Roosters became the first team to win back-to-back Premierships since the Brisbane Broncos in 1992 ...

. McQueen instead spent most of the year playing for Western Suburbs in the

Canterbury Cup NSW The NSW Cup, currently known as the Knock-On Effect NSW Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a rugby league competition for clubs in New South Wales. The competition has a history dating back to the NSWRFL's origins in 1908, starting off as a reserve ...

competition. On 4 September 2020, McQueen was released by the

effective immediately.

Huddersfield

McQueen joined

in the

European Super League The European Super League (ESL), officially The Super League, was a proposed seasonal club football competition that initially would have been contested by twenty European football clubs, twelve of them being the competition's founding members. ...

following his release from the

. In round 2 of the 2022 Super League season, McQueen scored two tries for Huddersfield in a 26-12 victory over the

Hull Kingston Rovers Hull Kingston Rovers are a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England, that competes in the Super League, the top tier of British rugby league. The club has won five league championships, and one Challeng ...

. On 28 May 2022, McQueen played for Huddersfield in their

loss against

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, 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 nor ...

. McQueen was awarded the

as man of the match.

England

McQueen was called up to the England national team by coach Wayne Bennett for the test against Samoa on 6 May 2017. It was the first time that McQueen had accepted England after rejecting an approach for the 2013 World Cup in order to play for Queensland in the

. The Brisbane-born player qualifies for England through his father.

References

External links

Huddersfield Giants profileWests Tigers profileNRL profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:McQueen, Chris 1987 births Living people Australian expatriate sportspeople in England Australian people of English descent Australian rugby league players England national rugby league team players Gold Coast Titans players Huddersfield Giants players North Sydney Bears NSW Cup players NRL All Stars players People from Kingaroy Prime Minister's XIII players Queensland Rugby League State of Origin players Rugby league centres Rugby league locks Rugby league second-rows Rugby league wingers South Sydney Rabbitohs players Western Suburbs Magpies NSW Cup players Wests Tigers players Wynnum Manly Seagulls players Lance Todd Trophy winners