Reuben Cooke

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Reuben Cooke
BornReuben James Cooke
17 April 1876 [1]
Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand
Died10 May 1940(1940-05-10) (aged 64)
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Weight85 kg (187 lb)
Notable relative Alfred Cooke (brother)
Rugby union career
Position Loose forward
Amateur team(s)
YearsTeamApps(Points)
1899, 1901–03 Merivale
1904–05 Star
Provincial / State sides
YearsTeamApps(Points)
1899, 1901–03 Canterbury
1904–05 South Canterbury
International career
YearsTeamApps(Points)
1903 New Zealand 1 (0)

Reuben "Ru" James Cooke (17 April 1876 – 5 May 1940) [2] [3] [4] [5] was a New Zealand rugby union player who represented the All Blacks in 1903. His position of choice was loose forward.

Contents

Career

Commonly known as "Ru", out of the Merivale club, [6] Cooke made his debut for the Canterbury province as a 19-year-old in 1899. [7]

After playing for the South Island against the North consecutively in 1902 and 1903, Cooke was selected for the 1903 tour of Australia. He played in the preliminary match against Wellington and then nine out of the ten tour matches in Australia. He scored one try in his All Black career, against Combined Northern Districts, but did not score any points in his only test match against Australia. [7]

In the first game in Australia against New South Wales, Cooke was sent off the field after being involved in an altercation with opposing player Harold Judd. [5] This had happened only once prior in All Black history, in 1893 (ironically also against NSW) to William McKenzie. [7] Further investigation proved Cooke was not at fault and he was cleared from any punishment. [7]

He was further chosen for the test match against Great Britain in 1904 but Cooke was unable to play because of injury. [7]

Finally, at the end of the 1904 season he was part of a pool of players that would be selected for the famous Original All Blacks. Unfortunately he was not selected and as there were no trials it is unknown how close he was for selection. [7]

He played for South Canterbury in 1904 and 1905. [5] [7]

Cooke moved to Melbourne, Australia in 1913 and was a coach as well as an administrator for the Kiwi club. [5] [7]

Family

His older brother, Alfred, was an All Black in 1894. [5] [7] Unfortunately, Alfred died aged 30, three years before Cooke made his All Black debut.

References

  1. ↑ https://stats.allblacks.com/all-players/profile/Rue-Cooke-AB-96
  2. ↑ "the 1,109 rugby ALL BLACKS since 1884 - ABBOTT to FURLONG :: FamilyTreeCircles.com Genealogy". familytreecircles.com. Retrieved 22 April 2016.
  3. ↑ "PECK of Taita – Family Tree". ngairedith.tribalpages.com. Retrieved 22 April 2016.
  4. ↑ "Reuben James Cooke". ESPNscrum. Retrieved 22 April 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Chester, Ron; McMillan, Neville; Palenski, Ron (1987). The Encyclopedia of New Zealand Rugby. Auckland, New Zealand: Moa Publications. p. 45. ISBN   0-908570-16-3.
  6. ↑ "Merivale Papanui Celebrate 130 Years in Style – Clubs – Canterbury Rugby Football Union". crfu.co.nz. Archived from the original on 5 March 2017. Retrieved 22 April 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Stats | allblacks.com". stats.allblacks.com. Retrieved 22 April 2016.
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