state and greatly threatened by the momentum built up by rugby league's continuance of competition throughout the war. Interbellum Back in Australia after the war Watson took up first grade rugby again and at aged 32 joined the new venture Glebe-Balmain club, which had merged those two prior clubs as a result of the player losses each had suffered in the War. In 1920 he was selected as captain of the New South Wales state team and led them in three matches against a touring All Blacks side. With no Queensland Rugby Union administration or competition in place from 1919 to 1929, the New South Wales Waratahs were the top Australian representative rugby union side of the period and a number of their fixtures of 1920s played against full international opposition were decreed by the Australian Rugby Union in 1986 as official Test matches. Though he was not aware of it at the time, Watson's three appearances as captain of New South Wales were Test match captaincy fixtures. All told Watson played 46 matches for Newtown, 13 for Glebe-Balmain and 22 matches for New South Wales. He played 24 matches for Australia including the three NSW Tests of 1920 plus five other pre-war Tests. From 1920 to 25 and then from 1932 to 39 he lived in Papua New Guinea working in copra production and gold-mining. Fitzsimons quotes from the Johnston reference: "For years [Watson] was one of the best known soldiers of fortune in New Guinea. He recruited native labour (in a period he still refers to as his "blackbirding days"); traded around the island in crazy schooners; tried cattle ranching; worked as trader, beachcomber, plantation manager and then as a gold prospector in the then practically unknown Owen Stanley Ranges. Several times he struck it rich, and always the money seemed to run away". In Sydney in 1929 he married American-born Cora May Callear. They would relocate to Columbiana, Ohio in 1935 and raise a son and a daughter. Second World War and later life At the commencement of Second World War, Watson returned to Australia and served in the 2nd Australian Garrison Battalion. In June 1940 his pre-war New Guinea experience (and his ability to speak local New Guinea dialect) was put to use when he was posted to the Papuan Infantry Battalion, a force of native soldiers and Australian officers and NCOs. He took command of