Peter Moir was an Australian 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...

 footballer of the early 1900s who was a key figure in the foundation of rugby league in Australia

Rugby league in Australia

Rugby league football is one of the most popular sports in Australia. It is the dominant winter sport on the eastern seaboard of Australia, including the states of New South Wales and Queensland as well as the Australian Capital Territory, which together comprise around half of the country's...

. He was one of Australia's first national representative players appearing in the inaugural professional series against New Zealand in 1907 and making the 1908-09 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain.

Union career and dissent

Moir played rugby for Bathurst and Glebe, gaining selection for the New South Wales rugby union team in 1903.

At the time concerns were starting to be raised over rugby football and cricket administrations' treatment of their players, Moir was a frequent visitor to Australian international cricketer Victor Trumper

Victor Trumper

Victor Thomas Trumper was an Australian cricketer known as the most stylish and versatile batsman of the Golden Age of cricket, capable of playing match-winning innings on wet wickets his contemporaries found unplayable. Archie MacLaren said of him, "Compared to Victor I was a cab-horse to a Derby...

's sporting goods store on Sydney's Market Street

Market Street, Sydney

Market Street is a cross street in the Central Business District of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It runs from Sussex Street near Darling Harbour in the west, to Elizabeth Street at St. James railway station in the east....

. Moir and Trumper, along with Alec Burdon, J J Giltinan

J J Giltinan

James Joseph Giltinan was an Australian entrepreneur who helped to found the sport of rugby league football in Australia.On 8 August 1907 at Bateman's Crystal Hotel, George Street, Sydney politician Henry Hoyle chaired a meeting of fifty, comprising several leading rugby players and officials...

, and Harry Hoyle attended one such meeting in 1907 to form a new governing body for rugby football in New South Wales and organise a team to host Albert Baskiville's similarly rebellious touring New Zealand rugby team.

Professional career

When the Australian leg of the 1907–1908 New Zealand rugby tour of Australia and Great Britain

1907–1908 New Zealand rugby tour of Australia and Great Britain

The 1907–1908 New Zealand rugby tour of Australia and Great Britain was a tour made by a group of New Zealand rugby footballers who played matches in Australia, Ceylon, England and Wales between 1907 and 1908. Most of the matches were played under the rules of the Northern Union, what is today...

 commenced, Moir played for the first ever New South Wales rugby league team

New South Wales rugby league team

The New South Wales rugby league team has represented the Australian state of New South Wales in rugby league football since the sport's beginnings there in 1907. Administered by the New South Wales Rugby League, the team competes in the annual State of Origin series against arch-rivals, the...

 at second-row forward against the "All Golds". Although played under rugby union rules, this match was professional (all players received £1) and was the first rugby match not sanctioned by the New South Wales Rugby Football Union and thus was essentially Australia's first rugby league match.

The following year, the 1908 NSWRFL season, the first of the New South Wales Rugby Football League, commenced and Moir played for Glebe RLFC. He made two state representative appearances for New South Wales against Queensland that year and at season's end he was selected to tour with the inaugural Kangaroos on the 1908-09 tour. He played in only four matches of the tour none of them Test matches.

Following the Kangaroo tour he retired and took on an administrative role with the Glebe club. He was only 39 years only at his death.