Ray Thompson Rugby player
Ray Thompson (born in 20 January 1990 in Cairns, Queensland), is an Australian rugby league footballer for the North Queensland Cowboys of the National Rugby League.In 2007 as an 16 year old Thompson played a match for the Cowboys now folded feeder club the North Queensland young guns as experience for 2008 when the under 20's competition started.Thompson played 21 matches in the Toyota Cup in 2008, he was one of the club's leading scorers playing at Halfback in that season.In the opening round of the Toyota Cup Thompson injured his shoulder and required a shoulder reconstruction which kept him out of action until round 19 of the Toyota Cup season, Thompson played another 7 games after coming back from surgery. Ray Thompson made his NRL debut in 2009 in the Cowboys round 26 win against the Roosters. The Cowboys had hoped Thompson would be their next star half in the NRL.Thompson played in the opening 3 games of the Toyota Cup in 2010 until being called into the NRL squad as an replacement for the out of form Grant Rovelli. Thompson had been one of the Cowboys best players in rounds 4-7 before being cruelly hit by another shoulder injury this time kept him out for the rest of the season.In 2011 Ray Thompson was in a battle between Ben Jones, Michael Morgan for the round 1 spot at five-eighth after the Cowboys had gone under a rebuilding phase after the club had failed to make the top 8 three times in three years. The club had bought over 18 new players in 2011. Thompson ended up winning the five-eighth spot after having a great preseason and trail games.Thompson went on to play in all of the Cowboys 25 games in 2011 and making the finals for the first time in four season. Thompson was named the Cowboys most improved player at their presentation ball at the end of the season.2012 saw Thompson in yet another battle for a Cowboys jersey, this time the 7. The club had signed a half from the Wests Tigers, Robert Lui, to the club. Thompson had the upper hand in the battle after Lui was ruled out until round 2 of the NRL season with a knee injury.Ray Thompson started the 2012 season at halfback, with signing Robert Lui playing Queensland Cup. Thompson continued to improve for the Cowboys and scored a clever try against the Canberra Raiders in Round 5. Team mate Lui was latter suspended for the whole of the 2012 season by the NRL for off-field incidents, meaning Thompson would play at the season for the Cowboys in the number 7 jersey.Thompson played in the Papua New Guinea side to take on Australia PM's 13 played in Lae, Papua New Guinea in 25 September 2011, where he was named PNG'S player of the match after he set up two tries and scored one himself.Thompson played 18 matches in 2012. He was ruled out for the rest of the season after the Cowboys round 22 loss to the Manly Sea Eagles, requiring a shoulder reconstruction his third of his short career.Throughout the early half of the 2013 NRL season, Thompson played in a rotating hooker position with fellow Cowboys teammate Rory Kostjasyn.He played for Papua New Guinea in the 2013 Rugby League World Cup.