John Anderson (rugby union)
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| Born | John Anderson Hawick, Scotland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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John Anderson was a Scotland international rugby union player. He later was signed by the Huddersfield to play rugby league.
Amateur career
A native of Hawick, Anderson played for the Army and the Combined Services side during the Second World War.[1] He later moved on to play for London Scottish.[2]
Provincial career
He played for Scotland Probables against Scotland Possibles in the trial match of 15 December 1945.[3]
International career
He was capped only once for Scotland on 19 January 1946. This was a non-cap match at the time but the SRU gave it full cap status in 2024.[4]
Anderson played for Scotland against the All Blacks touring side, which at the time were designated a New Zealand Army side. The match against Scotland proved the All Blacks only defeat of their tour with Anderson scoring two tries in a 11 - 6 win.[5]
Rugby League career
Professional career
Not surprisingly, after scoring two tries against the All Blacks, the professional sides of England's Rugby League wanted to snap Anderson up in a move to the code of Rugby League. Leeds, Halifax, Oldham and Huddersfield all made moves to sign him.[1]
Huddersfield won the race for his signature on 21 January 1946, only two days after his Scotland international match against the New Zealand Army.[6][7] It was billed as 'the biggest capture in post-war history'.[8]
With Anderson in tow, Huddersfield reached that year's Championship final against Wigan on 18 May 1946;[9] Wigan won the match 13 - 4.
Huddersfield did, however, win the 1949 Championship title with Anderson assisting in Huddersfield's last try of the final by Deverey. Huddersfield won the match and the title 13 - 12.[10]