Scott Robert Gourley is 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 former rugby league

Rugby league

Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...

 and 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...

 player - An inspirational player who had absolutely dominated, a terrible day for Australian sport when this sportsman retired - a dual code international. He is the son of former Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 rugby union international Robin Gourley

Robin Gourley

Robin Gourley is an Irish-Australian former rugby league footballer of the 1960s. After initially playing rugby union in his native Ireland, Gourley took up rugby league after he moved to Australia in his 20s. He played from 1963 to 1966 as a front-row forward for the St. George Dragons, including...

, who played in the winning St George rugby league premiership winning sides of 1965 and 1966.

Rugby union career

After captaining the Australian Schoolboys Rugby Union side on their 1986 tour of New Zealand, he made his Test debut for the Wallabies

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...

 against Scotland in 1988. He earned five international rugby union Test caps between 1988 and 1989 as a flanker. He became prominent with some fearsome displays of running against the touring British Lions

British and Irish Lions

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

 in 1989 and he is remembered for a magnificent try

Try

A try is the major way of scoring points in rugby league and rugby union football. A try is scored by grounding the ball in the opposition's in-goal area...

 scored in that series, running through tacklers at will.

Rugby league career

Switching to Rugby League in 1989 he joined the St George Dragons.

He played 120 games for the Dragons from 1989–1996 and played in 3 losing Grand Final sides - 1992 & 93 against the Brisbane Broncos

Brisbane Broncos

The Brisbane Broncos are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the city of Brisbane, the capital of the state of Queensland. Founded in 1988, the Broncos play in Australasia's elite competition, the National Rugby League premiership. They have won six premierships and two...

 and 1996 against Manly. In 1997 the Back rower

Rugby league positions

A rugby league football team consists of thirteen players on the field, with four substitutes on the bench. Players are divided into two general categories: "forwards" and "backs"....

 joined the Sydney Roosters playing 45 matches in his 2 seasons at that club.
He represented Australia in Rugby League in 1991 in a Test series against Papua New Guinea. His international rugby league debut in the 1st Test against PNG in Goroka saw him become Australia's 39th dual code rugby international following Ricky Stuart

Ricky Stuart

Ricky Stuart is an Australian rugby league football coach and former player of the 1980s and 90s. He is currently the head coach of the New South Wales State of Origin team, having replaced Craig Bellamy following a fifth consecutive failure in the 2010 series...

 and preceding Andrew Walker.

He remains the last Australian dual code international to have debuted in rugby league following a rugby union representative career. All four since have made the converse switch.

Since his retirement in 1998, Scott has pursued a business career.

Sources

• Andrews, Malcom (2006) The ABC of Rugby League Austn Broadcasting Corpn, Sydney