Robert Graves

Rugby union career Graves grew up in inner city Balmain in Sydney. He played rugby union at Fort Street School and later represented for his senior school Hawkesbury Agricultural College. From there he was graded to play rugby union with the West Sydney Juniors - an inner city club.

The second wave of Wallaby defectors to rugby league in 1909 (Chris McKivat's Olympic Gold Medal Wallabies) spelled the end of Graves' representative career. Though only 26 years old he did not play another Test. He played a further 5 seasons with Balmain retiring in 1913.

Dual international recognition Both the Whiticker and Whiticker/Collis references record that in 1907 Graves represented New South Wales in rugby union and in that same year came on as a replacement for John Rosewell in the Wallabies v All Blacks 1st Test in Sydney. This makes Graves a dual code rugby international and he is listed as such in the 1991 edition of the Andrews reference.

He is however not listed among the Australian dual-code internationals in sources such as the "2005 Rugby League Annual" or in editions of "Australian Sporting Records". Presumably (and erroneously) this may be due to his status in making his single Wallaby appearance as a reserve rather than from the run-on side.