Les Cubitt (31 October 1892 – 10 November 1968) was an Australian representative

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 ...

player, a , or whose club career was with

Eastern Suburbs Eastern Suburbs may refer to: Places *Eastern Suburbs (Mumbai), India *Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Australia **Eastern Suburbs railway line, Sydney, Australia Sports clubs ;Association football *Eastern Suburbs AFC, Auckland, New Zealand * Eastern ...

and the

Glebe Glebe (; also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s))McGurk 1970, p. 17 is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved ...

. He is considered one of the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century.

Club career

Cubitt commenced his club career at just eighteen years of age with

playing alongside his older brother Charlie Cubitt in the 1911 Grand Final loss to

. In 1913, Cubitt joined Eastern Suburbs where he played for the next nine seasons winning a premiership in

1913 Events January * January 5 – First Balkan War: Battle of Lemnos (1913), Battle of Lemnos – Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it will not ven ...

. Cubitt was the younger brother of the rugby league footballer; Charlie Cubitt. During the beginning of his career, Cubitt was better known for his goal-kicking skills, however, he transitioned into more of a try-scorer later in his career. He was an adept side-stepper and was also very proficient at selling fake passes to opposing defenders.

Representative career

He was first selected 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 ...

in 1911 but had to wait until the end of the

First World War 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 ...

to make his national representative debut. He played in the centres in all four Tests of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

's first tour of

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in 1919 scoring four tries in the tests and 17 tries in the last three tour matches. He is listed on the ''Australian Players Register'' as Kangaroo No. 95. He was selected as captain of the 1921-22 "Australasian" Kangaroos which had two New Zealanders in the squad. He concealed a serious knee injury which he aggravated on the tour in England and which led to his eventual retirement in 1922.

Accolades

In February 2008, Cubitt was named in the list of Australia's ''100 Greatest Players'' (1908–2007) which was commissioned by 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 ...

and

ARL ARL may refer to: Military * US Navy hull classification symbol for repair ship * Admiralty Research Laboratory, UK * United States Army Research Laboratory * ARL 44, a WWII French tank Organizations * Aero Research Limited, a UK adhesives compan ...

to celebrate the code's centenary year in Australia. Glebe RLFC 1911

Sources

* Whiticker, Alan & Hudson, Glen (2006) ''The Encyclopedia of Rugby League Players'', Gavin Allen Publishing, Sydney

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cubitt, Les 1892 births Australian rugby league players Glebe rugby league players Sydney Roosters players Australia national rugby league team players New South Wales rugby league team players 1968 deaths Australasia rugby league team players Rugby league five-eighths Rugby league centres