Luke Archibald Douglas (born 12 May 1986) is a

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

international former

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 played as a . Douglas played for the

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australasia's premier rugby league ...

and the

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 ...

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 ...

from 2006 to 2016. He also played for St Helens 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 ...

in 2017 and 2018, and on loan from the St. Helens at the

Leigh Centurions The Leigh Leopards are a professional rugby league club based in Leigh, Greater Manchester, England, who compete in the Betfred Super League. The club was founded in 1878, and is one of the original twenty-two clubs that formed the Northern R ...

in the 2019

Betfred Championship The Championship, known as the Betfred Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a professional rugby league competition. It is the second-tier competition organised by the Rugby Football League, the governing body for the sport in England, ...

, after which he retired from the sport. Through ancestral eligibility, he represented Scotland at the 2013 World Cup,

2016 Four Nations The 2016 Rugby League Four Nations tournament (known as the 2016 Ladbrokes Four Nations, for sponsorship purposes) was the fifth staging of the Rugby League Four Nations tournament and was played in England in October and November. The series was c ...

and the 2017 World Cup.

Early career

Douglas was born in

Yamba, New South Wales Yamba is a town in northern New South Wales, Australia at the mouth of the Clarence River. The first European to visit the area was Matthew Flinders, who stopped in Yamba Bay for six days in July 1799. The town economy is strongly based on fi ...

, Australia to parents Archibald Christopher (Chris) and Patricia (Trish) Douglas. He is of Scottish descent through his paternal grandfather, Archibald, who moved from

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

Maclean, New South Wales Maclean is a town in Clarence Valley local government area in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia. It is on the Clarence River and near the Pacific Highway. At the , Maclean had a population of 2,778, total urban area in ...

. Douglas' brother is

Australian rugby union Rugby Australia Ltd, previously named the Australian Rugby Union Limited and Australian Rugby Football Union Limited, is an Australian company operating the premier rugby union competition in Australia and teams. It has its origins in 1949. It ...

representative

Kane Douglas Kane Douglas (born 1 June 1989) is an Australian professional rugby union footballer who currently plays as a lock for the Bordeaux club in France. Douglas previously played a season with Irish province Leinster, as well as eight seasons in Sup ...

. Douglas played junior rugby league for the Yamba Eagles and Lower Clarence Magpies.

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks

Douglas made his first-grade debut for Cronulla in its season-opener against the

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Football Club Ltd., commonly referred to as the Broncos, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos play in Australia's elite com ...

in round 2, 2006. In 2007, Douglas was selected for Country Origin but withdrew by claiming “injury” at the request of his club coach, Ricky Stuart. Controversially, Douglas then played 24 hours later for

Cronulla Cronulla is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Boasting numerous surf beaches and swimming spots, the suburb attracts both tourists and Greater Sydney residents. Cronulla is located 26 kilometres south of the Sydney ...

. In 2010, he was picked as 18th man for the New South Wales State of Origin team for the third match of the series, but he didn't play. He later played the only domestic representative match of his career for Country Origin in 2012. Between his first grade debut in round 2, 2006 and round 23, 2014, inclusive, he never missed a first-grade match through injury or suspension. His run of 215 games straight is the NRL record for most consecutive appearances, and the most from debut. He surpassed the previous record of 194, held by Jason Taylor, on 10 March 2014 against his former club,

. His coach, John Cartwright, said his record was "remarkable, especially playing in the front row - he plays pretty big minutes as well." On 20 April 2011, it was announced that Douglas had signed a three-year contract with the

. Douglas’s unbroken streak of NRL matches since came to an end in August 2014 when he was one of several past and present Sharks players to accept a year-long ban, backdated to 21 November 2013, as part of ASADA's investigation into the club's controversial supplements program.

Gold Coast Titans

After four turbulent years at the Titans, during which the club failed to qualify for the finals and was rocked by numerous scandals, Douglas departed the Gold Coast and signed a three-year deal with

club

St Helens R.F.C. St Helens R.F.C. is a professional rugby league club in St Helens, Merseyside who compete in the Super League, the top tier for rugby league in Great Britain. They are the current Champions, having won the last 4 consecutive titles, and becom ...

St Helens

On 25 January 2019, it was confirmed that St Helens had an agreed a one-month loan deal with

Leigh Leigh may refer to: Places In England Pronounced : * Leigh, Greater Manchester, Borough of Wigan ** Leigh (UK Parliament constituency) * Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Pronounced : * Leigh, Dorset * Leigh, Gloucestershire * Leigh, Kent * Leigh, Staf ...

for Douglas.

References

External links

St Helens profile
*(archived by web.archive.org
SL profile2017 RLWC profileSaints Heritage Society profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas, Luke 1986 births Living people Australian people of Scottish descent Australian rugby league players Australian sportspeople in doping cases Country New South Wales Origin rugby league team players Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks players Doping cases in Australian rugby league Doping cases in rugby league Gold Coast Titans players Leigh Leopards players Prime Minister's XIII players Rugby league props Rugby league second-rows Scotland national rugby league team captains Scotland national rugby league team players St Helens R.F.C. players People from Yamba, New South Wales