Claud Augustus O'Donnell (30 January 1886 – 4 August 1953) was an Australian

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

and

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 and represented his country at both sports as a

dual-code rugby international A dual-code rugby international is a rugby footballer who has played at the senior international level in both codes of rugby, 13-a-side rugby league and 15-a-side rugby union. Rugby league started as a breakaway version of rugby in Northern Eng ...

Rugby union career

O'Donnell played rugby union with the Glebe club in inner city Sydney. He made his representative debut for

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in 1912 and the following year made two Test appearances as hooker for the

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 ...

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 198 ...

in the 1913 tour of New Zealand.

Rugby league career

Switching to rugby league O'Donnell joined the Glebe Dirty Reds in 1915 and had three seasons in the Sydney premiership. In 1918 he moved to Brisbane and joined the Carltons club, one of the early incarnations of the

Souths Magpies The Souths Logan Magpies, more commonly referred to by their former names Southern Suburbs Magpies, or South Brisbane Magpies, or often simply referred to as Souths, are a rugby league football club based in the southern suburbs of Brisbane, Au ...

. From there he made state appearances for

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against

over four years and in 1919 was selected in the Australian team as hooker. He played in all four Tests of the 1919 rugby league tour of

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 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

. He is listed as Australia's 97th representative on the Australian Rugby League's Kangaroo register. His international rugby league debut against New Zealand in Wellington on 23 August 1919 alongside

Clarrie Prentice Clarence Warwick Prentice (1 July 1891 – 10 March 1948) was an Australian rugby union and rugby league footballer who represented his country at both sports - a dual-code rugby international. He is the younger brother of fellow Wests player W ...

saw them become Australia's 20th and 21st dual code rugby internationals. It wasn't until 18 years later that Doug McLean, Jr. would become the next Australian dual representative. During the 1920 Great Britain Lions tour O'Donnell played a match for Queensland against the visiting Britons. He returned to Sydney for a final season with North Sydney in 1923 and was aged 37 when he finally retired at the end of that year.

References

Sources

* Andrews, Malcolm (2006) ''The ABC of Rugby League'', Austn Broadcasting Corpn, Sydney * Whiticker, Alan & Hudson, Glen (2006) ''The Encyclopedia of Rugby League Players'', Gavin Allen Publishing, Sydney {{DEFAULTSORT:Odonnell, Claud 1886 births 1953 deaths Australia international rugby union players Australia national rugby league team players Australian rugby league players Australian rugby union players Dual-code rugby internationals Glebe rugby league players North Sydney Bears players Rugby league players from Sydney Rugby union players from Sydney Queensland rugby league team players South Sydney Rabbitohs players Souths Logan Magpies players Rugby union hookers