Malcolm Julian "Mannie" McArthur (30 July 1882 – 6 July 1961) 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 ...

national representative

player. He won a gold medal in rugby at the

1908 Summer Olympics The 1908 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the IV Olympiad and also known as London 1908) were an international multi-sport event held in London, England, United Kingdom, from 27 April to 31 October 1908. The 1908 Games were ori ...

Rugby career

McArthur's rugby career was played with the

Eastern Suburbs RUFC The Eastern Suburbs Rugby Union Football Club is a team in the Intrust Super Shute Shield, the premier club rugby union football competition in New South Wales. The club is based in Rose Bay in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, and was founded ...

in Sydney, Australia. He was selected in Australia's inaugural national rugby team to tour the northern hemisphere - Dr Paddy Moran's First

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized 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 taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...

for the

1908–09 Australia rugby union tour of Britain The 1908–09 Australia rugby union tour of the British Isles was a collection of friendly rugby union games undertaken by the Australia national rugby union team against invitational and national teams from England and Wales, as well as severa ...

At the time the rugby tournament for the London Olympics game may not have appeared to be of great significance. Australia had already beaten Cornwall, the British county champions early in the tour and

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 ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

had all turned down the

Rugby Football Union The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the Sports governing body, national governing body for rugby union in England. It was founded in 1871, and was the sport's international governing body prior to the formation of what is now known as World Rugby ...

's invitation to participate in the Olympic bouts. Neither the tour captain Moran, nor the vice-captain Fred Wood played, so Chris McKivat led the Wallabies to an easy 32–3 victory and to Olympic glory, with each Wallaby in that match thereafter an Olympic gold medallist. McArthur made his Test debut on that tour at Rectory Field, Blackheath in the Test against

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 ...

in January 1909 - a match won by Australia 9–3.

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:McArthur, Malcolm 1882 births 1961 deaths Australian rugby union players Australia international rugby union players Rugby union players at the 1908 Summer Olympics Olympic rugby union players for Australasia Olympic gold medalists for Australasia Medalists at the 1908 Summer Olympics Rugby union players from Sydney Rugby union flankers Eastern Suburbs RUFC players

Rugby career

See also

Footnotes

External links