John Anthony Gallagher

Who is John Anthony Gallagher?

John Anthony Gallagher is an English rugby union and professional rugby league footballer of the 1980s and '90s, playing representative level rugby union for New Zealand, and at provincial level for Marist Saint Patricks, Wellington, and Oriental Rongotai, as a Centre, or Fullback, and playing club level rugby league for Leeds, and the London Crusaders, as a Fullback.

In 1990, Gallagher was one of the first of a succession of All Blacks to switch codes to rugby league, following from his understudy Matthew Ridge, who signed with the NSWRL's Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles only a week before. Other All Blacks who followed soon after were Frano Botica and John Schuster.

Gallagher was initially signed by David Ward for Leeds RLFC. While he was considered one of the fastest players over 30m when he switched to league, and this was put to good early use by Leeds, he was targeted by opposition players in defense and was badly injured in an alleged spear tackle. He may also have found the tactical differences between the two codes difficult to adjust to, particularly in his favoured full-back position and the move was unsuccessful. Perhaps his finest moment for Leeds came in a match against Australia during the Australian teams 1990 Kangaroo tour when he scored the opening try of the game at Headingley Stadium. Unfortunately though, Gallagher's defense came into question later in that game when giant Kangaroo second rower Paul Sironen scored two tries, both times running over the top of him.