Try as I might I cannot really get my head around the concept of Rob Burrow being a "front rower"

Thanks for that.

I'm too lazy/busy (*delete as applicable) to spend half a day rooting through scrapbooks and programmes to confirm but I'd have guessed him being around there give or take a year or two closer to thirty. Morris must have had a tough paper round as a kid.



No comment. Just reporting on the ages of the players nominally selected in those positions on the teamsheet.

nominally is prob correct

of the scrums in a game how many does he actually pack down as hooker, how many @ loose forward or back @ scrum half?

If either of our hookers had to strike for the ball could they reach it?

Ah, the great Bob Morris/Peter Smith combination. I had tried to blank that from memory given that those two were just about the worst imports ever. In an era where most clubs managed to sign quite decent 'no name' forwards from Australia, Leeds managed to find two who were completely useless.

Confirmed by Pete Smith on twitter Kylie has signed a new rolling contract.

Now on Rhinos website too - really good news.

Bumped into those two in the, now long closed, Cherry Tree pub on Dolly Lane,Leeds 9 Friendly enough guys,but as you say completely useless ! Also with them was Mark McGaw who was far from useless !

Peter Smith and Bob Morris both made exactly ten appearances for Leeds so will have each qualified (just) for one of those unique number thingies that Leeds briefly dabbled with a season or three ago.

'Sparkles' McGaw appeared to be a happy accident as his initial arrival was portrayed as him coming over to keep his mate company. His mate was a good player also and was entirely responsible for the better half suddenly becoming an avid rugby watcher for all of about five minutes.

I hope you helped them up again

Stand to be corrected, but didn't McGaw go on to play Origin? Sign of a not too shabby player

Mark McGaw went on to play Origin and Test football including the 1990 Kangaroo Tour and became a TV gladiator back home in Australia - character name of Hammer.

Andrew Ettingshausen bringing along his mate to Headingley was the kind of accident you don't mind having.

Kylie and JP playing next year and possibly longer and ell worth it.I wonder if Sinfied will stay on after his present deal runs out in 2014?

Wasn't McGaw's greatest sporting success being a gladiator on the Ausrtalian version of gladiators? Awooooooggaaaaa

Sinfield will be 33/34 when his deal expires i think.With his game not being built around the need for pace and his good record in the fitness department i expect he will get another couple of years no problem should he want to continue.

There was another Australian who played for Leeds that year who was even worse than Morris or Smith.

Chief memory of McGaw was an incredible game at Wheldon Road that year where he made an eathquake of a tackle that sparked complete hell and later Roy Powell scored a cracking try to win it for Leeds.

Mark Wilkes?

The one and only.

Mark Wilkes. I remember his (one and only?) appearance at home against Barrow. Quite possibly the lowest quality first team game ever played at Headingley, against the worst side in the league. Wilkes managed to look hopelessly out of his depth even in that game.

Funny about McGaw coming over basically as ETs mate - in 83/84 Mark Laurie brought his brother Richie (who played a few A Team games). Not that unusual for that era though - Wally Lewis brought his brother to Wakefield and claimed that Scott was better than him.

You're not wrong re the quality but if anything Barrow were only the second poorest team in the first division that season as Wakefield were arguably even worse - unarguably if based solely on results.

The YP headline was 'Leeds Offer Suffering Fans Little Hope' while the YEP opted for 'Alarm Bells At Leeds'

Here's a taste of the YEP's tone with the opening: =#0000FF'Victory brought little relief for anxious Leeds in a dire and thoroughly depressing game at Headingley. With so any young players on duty in a drastically changed team, this could be said to b a foretaste of the future at the club. If so it was thoroughly alarming.'

Then on Wilkes specifically: =#0000FF'New Australian stand-off Mark Wilkes did not make any real impact and was taken off after 56 minutes. He landed a couple of goals but did not look up to First Division pace, although he was not alone in that.'

Sounds like a goal-kicking version of Joe Vickery.

The Headingley attendance that day was 4,364 and I imagine the highlight for many was the final whistle .... and as Trevor Watson concluded =#0000FF'and at the end someone collected a board stating 'All Ball Games Prohibited In This Area' and stuck it on the pitch. At least humour survives at Headingley if nothing else.'

The Leeds team line-up was:
David Creasser
Norman Francis, Carl Gibson, Andy Mason, Henry Sharp
Mark Wilkes, Mark Conway
Phil Turner, Colin Maskill, Roy Powell
David Heron, Paul Medley, Richard Gunn
Subs
David Healy, Trevor Skerrett

Things were oh so much better before Super League and summer rugby weren't they?

Weren't they?

why did leuluai hit robinson late isnt that baileys job (to put cheap shots on small halfbacks)

Please just log out and never log back in again

I dont know what all the fuss was about over this.you could clearly see on the reverse shot that kylie was commited and couldnt have seen the ball being released at the exact time of impact.nothing should come of it.

Pleased the old guys staying. Have you got any younger props like Pitts and Amour that may like to move on .

Aye, those two are ripping up the league at the minute.