Bob Tubman

Bob Tubman

Personal information
Full name	Robert Tubman
Born	6 June 1884
Died	17 December 1956(1956-12-17) (aged 72)
Playing information
Club Years Team Pld T G FG P Blackstone (Ipswich) Representative Years Team Pld T G FG P 1908–11 Queensland 14 1908 Australia 2
Source: RLProject

Robert Tubman (6 June 1884 – 17 December 1956) was a pioneer Australian rugby league footballer, one of his country's first selected national representatives.

Playing career

Tubman was a registered rugby union player in Queensland in 1908 at the time of the rugby league code's inaugural competition year in Australia. He was selected in the first ever Queensland Maroons state representative side to play the new "Northern Union" style of rugby, taking on Albert Baskerville's New Zealand All Golds on their inaugural tour.^[1][2] He would go to make fourteen state appearances over the next three years against New Zealand, New South Wales, Great Britain^[3] and the New Zealand Māori rugby league team.^[4]

When the New Zealand team came back on the return leg of their tour, they played three Test matches against the first Australian representative sides ever selected. The first Test was played in Sydney on 9 May 1908 with the Kiwis prevailing. Tubman played in that Test at prop-forward and has been allocated Kangaroo representative No. 14.^[5] Tubman and his Queensland former rugby union colleagues Micky Dore and Doug McLean snr were all disqualified by the Queensland Rugby Union within days.^[6]

During the 1910 Ashes series played in Australia, Tubman made his 2nd and final national representative appearance in the second-row.^[7]

References

Footnotes

1. Higginson, Mike. "The Beginnings..." Our Golden History. Queensland Rugby League. Archived from the original on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
2. "All Blacks Tour 1907/1908". Rugby League Project. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
3. qrl.com.au. "Queensland Representative Players". History. Queensland Rugby League. Archived from the original on 1 December 2011. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
4. John Coffey & Bernie Wood (2008). 100 Years: Maori Rugby League, 1908-2008. New Zealand: Huia Publishers. p. 20. ISBN 978-1-86969-331-2.
5. "Player Register". Kangaroos. Australian Rugby League. Archived from the original on 17 March 2012. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
6. Dore&searchLimits= Townsville Daily extract 13 May 1908 retrieved 9 January 2012
7. "Ashes Series 1910 Series – Game 2 – Rugby League Project". Rugby League Project. Retrieved 1 August 2022.

Sources

• Whiticker, Alan & Hudson, Glen (2006) The Encyclopedia of Rugby League Players, Gavin Allen Publishing, Sydney