Anthony Starks

Who was Anthony Starks?

Anthony Starks was an English dual-code international rugby union and professional rugby league footballer of the 1890s and 1900s, playing representative level rugby union for England, and Yorkshire, and at club level for Castleford RUFC, as a Forward, and playing representative level rugby league for England, and at club level for Hull Kingston Rovers, as a Prop, i.e. number 8 or 10, during the era of contested scrums. England's Anthony Starks and Wales' Jack Rhapps took the field in the inaugural rugby league international of Tuesday 5 April 1904 between England and Other Nationalities. Starks had made two rugby union Test appearances for England in 1896, and Rhapps had made a single rugby union Test appearance for Wales in 1897, and thus in April 1904 they became the world's first dual-code rugby internationals.