George Alexander Dobson (1873 – 8 June 1917) was a Welsh

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 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...

 forward who played club rugby for 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 international rugby for 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...

. Although playing in only one international, it was part of the 1900 Wales Home Nations Championship

Six Nations Championship

The Six Nations Championship is an annual international rugby union competition involving six European sides: England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales....

 winning season, making Dobson a Triple Crown

Triple Crown (Rugby Union)

In rugby union, the Triple Crown is an honour contested annually by the four national teams of the British Isles who compete within the larger Six Nations Championship: England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. If any one team manages to win all their games against the other three they win the...

 winning player.

Rugby career

Dobson's family moved to Wales from Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 shortly before his birth in 1873, his brother Dobson

Tom Dobson

Tom Dobson was a Scottish-born rugby union forward who played club rugby for Cardiff and international rugby for Wales. His brother George Dobson was also a rugby player who represented Cardiff and Wales.-Rugby career:...

 having been born in Caithness

Caithness

Caithness is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic local government area of Scotland. The name was used also for the earldom of Caithness and the Caithness constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area is...

 just two years prior. Dobson found work as a young man as a coal trimmer

Coal trimmer

A coal trimmer is an occupation involving the positioning of boats to be loaded with coal. It may also involve the spreading of coal evenly using a shovel inside the hold of a ship....

 in Cardiff Docks

Cardiff Docks

Cardiff Docks is a port in south Cardiff, Wales. At its peak, the port was one of the largest dock systems in the world with a total quayage of almost...

, a typical hard-working manual job that was popular in Welsh rugby clubs in their forward players. Dobson saw his brother join Cardiff Rugby Club followed by national selection for Wales in 1898. Dobson followed his brother with a place in the Cardiff team before he himself was chosen by the Welsh selectors to face Scotland, as part of the 1900 Home Nations Championship

1900 Home Nations Championship

The 1900 Home Nations Championship was the eighteenth series of the rugby union Home Nations Championship. Six matches were played between 6 January and 17 March. It was contested by England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.-Table:-Results:...

. Wales had won the opening match against England, and Dobson was brought in to replace Dick Hellings

Dick Hellings

Richard 'Dick' Hellings was an English born rugby union forward who played international rugby for Wales and club rugby for Llwynypia. Hellings was noted for his strength built from years cutting coal as a Rhondda miner...

 who was unavailable. Under the captaincy of Welsh sporting hero Billy Bancroft

Billy Bancroft

Billy Bancroft was a Welsh international fullback who played club rugby for Swansea and a county cricketer for Glamorgan, becoming their first professional player in 1895....

, Wales beat Scotland 12-3, setting up a potential Triple Crown season if they could beat Ireland

Ireland national rugby union team

The Ireland national rugby union team represents the island of Ireland in rugby union. The team competes annually in the Six Nations Championship and every four years in the Rugby World Cup, where they reached the quarter-final stage in all but two competitions The Ireland national rugby union...

 in the final game. Although Dobson was replaced for the Irish match when Hellings returned, the Welsh win over Ireland on the 17 March made him a Triple Crown winning player in his one and only international match.

Dobson later went on to player for Rhondda

Rhondda

Rhondda , or the Rhondda Valley , is a former coal mining valley in Wales, formerly a local government district, consisting of 16 communities built around the River Rhondda. The valley is made up of two valleys, the larger Rhondda Fawr valley and the smaller Rhondda Fach valley...

 team, Llwynypia

Llwynypia RFC

Llwynypia RFC was a rugby union club located in the Welsh village of Llwynypia in the Rhondda. The team provided several international players during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, most notably Willie Llewellyn, who was not only selected to represent Wales while playing at the club, but...

, again following his brother. Dobson suffered from long periods of ill health dying in his late 40s in 1917.