McManus playing for the Knights in 2009
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Personal information
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Born |
Banff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland |
15 January 1986 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Playing information
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Height | 186 cm (6 ft 1 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 91 kg (14 st 5 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Position | Wing, Centre | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source:
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James McManus (born 15 January 1986) is a Scottish-born Australian former professional rugby league footballer. A New South Wales State of Origin representative, he played for the Newcastle Knights in the National Rugby League as a winger and centre.
McManus was born in Banff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and moved to Australia while in primary school. While living in the Northern Territory, he played his junior rugby league for the Katherine Bushrangers and later for the Palmerston Raiders in Northern Territory Rugby League competition. He graduated to the Northern Territory Institute of Sport's rugby league programme and while playing for the Northern Territory in Darwin in the Australian under-18s championships in 2003 was signed by the Newcastle Knights.
McManus commenced his NRL career during the 2007 Newcastle Knights season. He was selected for Country in the City vs Country match on 8 May 2009. McManus got injured after playing one match for New South Wales rugby league team for the 2009 State of Origin series, therefore didn't take part in the rest of the series and resulting in McManus missing the second half of 2009 and the first half of 2010. On 13 March 2013, McManus re-signed with the Knights on a 3-year contract.
3 years after McManus' debut in representative football, he returned to the representative arena, being selected for Country Origin again in 2012. On 7 July, McManus was named for the 2013 State of Origin decider following a string of strong performances at club level. For the third and deciding game of the 2013 State of Origin series McManus was selected as winger for New South Wales and scored a try in the Blues' loss. McManus finished the 2013 NRL season as the league's equal leading try scorer with 19 for the regular season. He shared the award with David Simmons of Penrith and David Williams from Manly. McManus was selected on the wing for New South Wales for Game 3 of the 2014 State of Origin series.