User:MacRusgail/Sandbox5

This is a list of rugby union players who have been notable in other sports.

There are many players who have converted one football code to another or even changed from other sports at a professional or representational level.

Globalisation is increasing the opportunities for players to transfer to different countries and to different professional sports, including the codes of football.

Angling

 * Howard Marshall (broadcaster)

Athletics

 * Miles Benjamin
 * Jean Bouin
 * Danny Crates
 * Dion O'Cuinneagain
 * Kathy Flores
 * C. B. Fry
 * Ken Jones (rugby player born 1921)
 * Eric Liddell
 * Charles Taylor
 * James Robertson (activist)
 * Attie van Heerden
 * Charles Vintcent


 * Chris MacKintosh

Basketball

 * Sharon Blaney
 * Kathy Flores
 * Mike Pyke
 * Emily Scarratt

Softball

 * Sharon Blaney

Bobsleigh

 * John Brown
 * Chris MacKintosh
 * Heather Moyse – A Canada international in rugby union, both in 15s and sevens, and winner of a gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in two-woman bobsleigh.

Boxing

 * Stan Harris
 * Howard Marshall (broadcaster)
 * Douglas Bader
 * Paddy Mayne

Cricket
This is a list of sports people who have played both cricket and rugby union at a high level. First-class cricket, provincial rugby and international cricket or rugby are considered to be high level for the purposes of this list. To be eligible, players must have appeared for their country's national side in at least one of the sports. The lists below are alphabetical and sorted by the nationality of the player.

Alfred Shaw and Arthur Shrewsbury, who organised the first British Isles rugby tour to Australasia in 1888 were also noted cricketers.

It should be noted that while the Wales national rugby union team is a force in international rugby, the Wales national cricket team plays only rarely, and the nation of Wales is usually subsumed under England for cricketing purposes.

Field hockey

 * George Abell (civil servant)
 * Cecil Banes-Walker
 * Norman Borrett
 * Kathy Flores
 * Geoff Griffin
 * Harry Vaughan Watkins

Golf

 * Jean_Hugo_(golfer)
 * James Cecil Parke
 * David Robertson (golfer)

Hammer throw

 * Myer Rosenblum

Hurling

 * Tomás O'Leary
 * Dick Spring

Ice Hockey

 * Mike Pyke

Judo

 * Non Evans

Karate

 * Mariusz Pudzianowski

Lawn Bowls

 * Leo Camron, also a keen advocate of cricket, and founding father of Israeli rugby.

Netball

 * Rawinia Everitt
 * Farah Palmer

Putting the weight

 * Frank Mitchell

Racquets



 * Henry Brougham
 * Richard Harris. As well as being a notable actor, Harris played rugby in Munster for Garryowen FC, and portrayed a rugby league player in This Sporting Life

Rugby fives
Note that rugby fives is not a form of rugby football
 * Jack Davies (cricketer)

Sailing

 * James Baxter (sportsman)

Skiing

 * Chris MacKintosh

Squash

 * Michael Green (cricketer)
 * Norman Borrett

Shinty

 * John Barr

Shot put

 * Victor Costello

Table tennis

 * Austin Matthews

Tennis

 * Stan Harris
 * David Mercer (broadcaster)
 * James Cecil Parke
 * Frank Stoker
 * John Fegan (rugby player)

Water polo

 * Miles Benjamin
 * Stan Harris
 * Noel Purcell (water polo)

Weight lifting

 * Non Evans
 * Mariusz Pudzianowski
 * Ben Turner

Wrestling

 * Non Evans

Yachting

 * Jacques Rogge

Football codes
It is extremely common for players of one code of football to switch to another, and the interchange between rugby union and rugby league, which are fairly similar has been huge. Until the advent of professionalisation in the 1990s, it was largely a one-way traffic, although there are now a number of former RL players in RU.

In some countries, such as Australia where multiple codes are popular and the practice of switching codes is common they are known simply as a code convert. In Australia star code converts can have a substantial impact on the football codes. For instance, Dally Messenger's defection from rugby union to rugby league was considered a pivotal moment in the establishment of the latter code over other codes in Australia.

Association football is getting the global monopoly on the term "football", but all of the codes below are known as "football" in their local contexts.

American football
Rugby union and American football share the same origins, but have evolved into very different games. Both are very physical and require similar body types.

NB: Tardits switched codes twice: to American football as a young adult, and back to rugby union after a brief NFL career. He played for Biarritz Olympique and the France under-21 national team before switching to American football, and played for the USA national team after returning to his original code. This entry outlines his career after his second switch of codes.

Chloe Butler

Association Football (Soccer)

 * Bobby Ancell
 * George Cotterill
 * Jack Dormand
 * Loreto Cucchiarelli former player-coach of the Italian rugby union team, played football for Lazio at a young age.
 * C. B. Fry
 * Herschelle Gibbs
 * Michael Green (cricketer)
 * William Gwynn
 * A. N. Hornby
 * Conrad Jantjes played for the youth national team of South Africa at soccer, rugby union and cricket.
 * Natasha Kai
 * Kenny Logan, Scottish rugby internationalist had Football trials as a goalkeeper for Dundee United and Hearts
 * Luke McAlister, a New Zealand international rugby union footballer, grew up in the north-west of England and had a trial with Manchester United before converting to rugby union at an early age.
 * Brothers Kevin O'Flanagan and Mick O'Flanagan represented Ireland at both soccer and rugby union.
 * Tony O'Reilly
 * Melissa Ruscoe
 * Jimmy Sinclair
 * Robert Sissons
 * Neville Steedman
 * Charles Vintcent
 * Charles Plumpton Wilson

Australian rules football
As in rugby league and Australian rules, early in the history of the two codes in Australia the two codes were interchangeable. There is a much greater divide today. Jason Akermanis was the first professional Australian football player to suggest a switch to Rugby. Nevertheless, there are still some positions and roles that have commonalities (particularly those that involve kicking and catching such as the backs and second row in rugby union; half forwards and rucks in Australian Rules). Also at amateur level, conversion is quite common, as in the case of many start-up Australian Rules clubs in countries such as France and developing Aussie Rules countries such as New Zealand and Samoa where there are dual-internationals at junior level.


 * William 'Nipper' Truscott
 * Pat Walsh (rugby)

In recent years, several schoolboy rugby union players have made a transition to Australian Rules, including Ray Smith (Queensland Under 19), Jim Stynes, Lewis Roberts-Thomson, Adam Campbell (New Zealand Under 15), Daniel Merrett, Brad Moran (West Midlands (England) Under 16) and Tom Williams (Queensland Under 16) and more recently Canadian international Mike Pyke.

Gaelic football
see also 

Kevin O'Flanagan - Dublin GAA

Dual Code Rugby/Rugby League
The number of rugby union players who have gone over to rugby league is massive. However, with the "free gangway" since the professonalisation of rugby union, the traffic is no longer all one way.

Because so many have switched between the two codes of rugby, it is difficult to produce a representative list.