George Cookson was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 international 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...

 half-back who played club rugby for Manchester

Manchester Rugby Club

Manchester Rugby Club, formerly known as Manchester Football Club, are one of the oldest rugby union clubs in existence, having been founded in 1860, 11 years before the RFU....

. Cookson was selected for the British Isles

British and Irish Lions

The British and Irish Lions is a rugby union team made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales...

 on the 1899 tour of Australia

1899 British Lions tour to Australia

The 1899 British Isles tour to Australia was the fourth rugby union tour by a British Isles team and the second to Australia; though the first tour in 1888 was a private venture, making the 1899 tour the first official undertaking of Australia...

 playing in all four Test matches.

Rugby career

At the height of Cookson rugby career, he was playing his club rugby for Manchester. He also played for Lancashire at county level, and gained a North of England cap in 1898. In 1899 he was approached by Matthew Mullineux

Matthew Mullineux

Matthew Mullineux MC was an English rugby union scrum-half who, although not capped for England, was selected for two British Lions tours. He gained one cap during the 1896 tour to South Africa and captained the 1899 tour of Australia...

 to join the British Isles rugby tour of Australia. Cookson played in 18 of the tour matches and all four Test matches against the Australia 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 the first Test he was partnered at centre with the tour captain, Mullineux, but after the team was defeated, Mullineux dropped himself from the team bringing in Charlie Adamson

Charlie Adamson

Charles "Charlie" Young Adamson was an English international rugby union utility back who played club rugby for Durham. Adamson played international rugby for the British Isles team on its 1899 tour of Australia...

 from three-quarters to team-up with Cookson for the final three Tests. The selection tactic proved successful with the British winning the remaining contests with the Australian side.

On returning to Britain, Cookson continued to represent Manchester and in 1900 was invited to join British touring team the Barbarians

Barbarian F.C.

The Barbarian Football Club, usually referred to as the Barbarians and nicknamed the "Baa-Baas", is an invitational rugby union team based in Britain...

. Despite being a British Isles player and being capped at North of England level, Cookson was never selected to play for the England national team

England national rugby union team

The England national rugby union team represents England in rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and Wales. They have won this championship on 26 occasions, 12 times winning the Grand Slam, making them the most successful team in...

.