Albert Bentley "Son" Burge (4 June 1889–1943) was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 lock who played with the Souths rugby union club in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 and at the age of nineteen was selected for the Australian national team

Australia national rugby union team

The Australian national rugby union team is the representative side of Australia in rugby union. The national team is nicknamed the Wallabies and competes annually with New Zealand and South Africa in the Tri-Nations Series, in which they also contest the Bledisloe Cup with New Zealand and the...

 in two Tests against New Zealand in 1907.

Rugby union career

He made the Wallaby tour of Great Britain of 1908

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 several games against sides from North America...

, called up as a squad replacement for his brother Peter who broke his leg. Alby appeared in a Test match against Wales

Wales national rugby union team

The Wales national rugby union team represent Wales in international rugby union tournaments. They compete annually in the Six Nations Championship with England, France, Ireland, Italy and Scotland. Wales have won the Six Nations and its predecessors 24 times outright, second only to England with...

. He was sent off for kicking in that match and did not make another rugby international appearance. Despite his sending off, Burge continued to be selected for the invitational matches against club opposition during the tour. Two weeks after the Wales match, Burge was part of the Australian team that faced Cardiff

Cardiff RFC

Cardiff Rugby Football Club is a rugby union football club based in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. The club was founded in 1876 and played their first few matches at Sophia Gardens, but soon relocated to Cardiff Arms Park where they have been based ever since...

, and was again sent from the pitch by referee Gil Evans after 'brutally' kicking Dai Westacott

Dai Westacott

David "Dai" Westacott was a Welsh international rugby union forward who played club rugby for Cardiff. Westacott played a single international game for Wales, in 1906, and faced the Original All Blacks as part of the Glamorgan county team in 1905.-Rugby career:Westacott first came to note as a...

 while the player was prone on the ground.

Rugby league career

He switched to rugby league football initially joining Newtown

Newtown Jets

The Newtown Jets are an Australian rugby league football club based in Newtown, a suburb of Sydney's inner west. They currently compete in the NSWRL Premier League competition, having left the top grade after the 1983 NSWRFL season...

 but then in 1911 he joined his brother Frank at Glebe. Albert was the captain of the Glebe side that lost the 1911 New South Wales Rugby League premiership final to Easts

Sydney Roosters

The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League and is one of the oldest and most successful clubs in Australian rugby league history, having won twelve New South Wales Rugby League...

 and captained the side for much of the next decade.

Further reading

• Andrews, Malcolm (2006) The ABC of Rugby League, Austn Broadcasting Corpn, Sydney
• Whiticker, Alan
  Alan Whiticker
  Alan J. Whiticker is an Australian non-fiction author with currently over 30 published books.Whiticker writes primarily on matters pertaining to the history of the sport of rugby league in Australia, but has also published works on subjects as diverse as the Wanda Beach Murders and an adaptation...
  
   (2004) Captaining the Kangaroos, New Holland, Sydney
• Whiticker, Alan
  Alan Whiticker
  Alan J. Whiticker is an Australian non-fiction author with currently over 30 published books.Whiticker writes primarily on matters pertaining to the history of the sport of rugby league in Australia, but has also published works on subjects as diverse as the Wanda Beach Murders and an adaptation...
  
   & Hudson, Glen (2006) The Encyclopedia of Rugby League Players, Gavin Allen Publishing, Sydney
• Whiticker, Alan
  Alan Whiticker
  Alan J. Whiticker is an Australian non-fiction author with currently over 30 published books.Whiticker writes primarily on matters pertaining to the history of the sport of rugby league in Australia, but has also published works on subjects as diverse as the Wanda Beach Murders and an adaptation...
  
   & Collis, Ian (2006) The History of Rugby League Clubs, New Holland, Sydney
• Heads, Ian & Middleton, David (2008) A Centenary of Rugby League, MacMillan, Sydney.
• Howell, Max (2005) Born to Lead: Wallaby Test Captains, Celebrity Books, Auckland, NZ.