John S. H. Rosewell (1 July 1882 – 20 November 1931) was an Australian

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 its m ...

and pioneer professional

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 and represented his country at both sports – a dual-code international.

Rugby union career

His rugby union career was played with the South Sydney RUFC. Rosewell was 28 years of age before he first saw representative success making four appearances in 1907 against the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987 ...

, two for

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 ...

and two as a

Wallaby A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized Macropodidae, 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 Taxonomy (biology), taxon ...

Rugby league career

He joined the new rugby league code in its first year – 1908, starting with 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 ...

. Along with

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 ...

Denis Lutge Denis "Dinny" Lutge (26 November 1879 – 18 February 1953) was a pioneer Australian rugby league and rugby union player, a dual-code international. He was the second ever captain of the Australian national rugby league team and the first to le ...

Doug McLean snr Douglas James McLean Sr. (15 April 1880 – December 1947) was a pioneer Australian representative rugby union and rugby league footballer, a dual-code international. He also represented Queensland in rugby league. Rugby union career Born in Br ...

and

Micky Dore Michael Joseph Dore (1 July 1883 – 13 August 1910) was an Australian representative rugby union and rugby league footballer - a dual-code international. He was one of the founding fathers of rugby league in Queensland. Along with Dally Messe ...

he was one of the inaugural five Australian dual code rugby internationals who having earlier represented at rugby union, debuted in international rugby league in Sydney on 9 May 1908 in the first ever Australian league Test against

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 ...

. He is listed on the ''Australian Players Register'' as Kangaroo No.13. He spent three seasons at South Sydney playing 29 matches scoring 4 tries and 6 goals. He was a member of the 1910 Rabbitohs side that drew the

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

against Newtown but lost the premiership on countback. He was selected on the pioneer 1908

Kangaroo 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 ...

tour of Great Britain and played one tour match. For the 1911 and 1912 seasons he saw out his playing career with the Annandale club In 1913 he was the first grade coach of the Rabbitohs.

Death

After his retirement from football, Johnny Rosewell worked at the

RAS Showground The former Sydney Showground (Moore Park) at Moore Park was the site of the Sydney Royal Easter Show in New South Wales, Australia from 1882 until 1997, when the Show was moved to the new Sydney Showground at Sydney Olympic Park, which ...

until his death. He died suddenly at his Maroubra home on 20 November 1931, and was buried the following day at Botany Cemetery.Sydney Morning Herald: Death/Funeral Notices 21/11/1931

Sources

* Whiticker, Alan (2004) ''Captaining the Kangaroos'', New Holland, Sydney * Andrews, Malcolm (2006) ''The ABC of Rugby League'', Austn Broadcasting Corpn, Sydney

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosewell, John 1882 births 1938 deaths Annandale rugby league players Australia international rugby union players Australia national rugby league team players Australian rugby league coaches Australian rugby league players Australian rugby union players Burials at Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park Dual-code rugby internationals New South Wales rugby league team players Rugby league players from Sydney South Sydney Rabbitohs coaches South Sydney Rabbitohs players Rugby union players from Sydney Rugby union props South Sydney Rabbitohs captains