Awesome name. Did he have a porn standard tash to do it justice?

If Leeds could have kept Izzard that season they'd have won the league IMO.

Must watch this again.

Remember very clearly that Izzard (er, I mean I) came on, knocked on a couple of times, and all the talk at half time was that we'd signed ANOTHER complete lemon. But then in the second half he was fantastic.

Rex Terp goes along with Mark Wilkes as evidence that we'd give any Aussie backpacker with a pair of boots what amounted to a first team trial. At least we binned them as soon as possible, unlike Joe Vickery.

rlThere was a little bit of niggle in this game - same seasonrl

I think that's my favourite ever Leeds game. Shame there's only the highlights not the full game uploaded otherwise we could count the amount of times Joe Grima and Paul Dixon should have been sent off (eight and seven respectively).

Lowlight was Moriarty's assault, which really crossed the line even for then. Highlight, other than the score against a really good Widnes side, was Mike O'Neill accidentally decking Paul Hulme during the south stand dust-up.

Indeed, those edited highlights don't do the game justice in terms of dirtiness, needle, biff and all round assaults and GBH. Even Carl Gibson put sly studs in on Martin Offiah near the end of the game, to which Offiah's reaction was to throw the ball at him. The commentator John Helm berated Offiah so clearly didn't spot what Gibbo did

How many ex-Union players in that Widnes team? Tait, Offiah, Kebbie, Devereux, Davies, Moriarty, etc. Even Leeds had Ackerman, Ford and Young on the books that season. It highlights the extent to which RL has suffered since Union turned pro (particularly in Wales). All those players above would have continued playing Union were they playing now.

At least we won the game the game he played in. One of the highlights in an otherwise car crash of a season.

And John Gallagher.

Koloto was from Union (Tonga).

Doug Laughton always had a keen eye for sniffing out Union talent.

David Cruickshank is one that springs to mind! I also remember Issards debut with fond memories but a few on that team sheet took some thinking about.

What a great watch - thanks for sharing the link.

3 things that particularly stand out for me;

1 - Watching that reminds me why the game is better without contested scrums, they were a mess to be fair.

2 - Paul Dixon was one of my favourites as a youngster - What I'd give for a genuine hard man like that in the pack nowadays. Never a backwards step, not often guilty of pure thuggery without provocation, but dealt with thuggery head on and just generally was hard as nails in everything he did.

3 - Whilst the game nowadays is much slicker, more organised in attack and defence and therefore easier on the eye, and much much cleaner in terms of violence.... The ad-hoc play and unpredicatability of every tackle of every set of six (regardless of field position) was great to watch, and seeing forwards go at it hell for leather, no complaints, no milking for penalties, too much pride to let anyone think you were hurt and generally just wanting to demolish anyone in he opposition is something I miss dearly.

God I wish forwards could be proper forwards nowadays - I'm happy to see the back of the out and out thuggery and cheap shot attacks, but the old fashioned toe to toe, gladiatorial, knock 10 bells out of each other mentality was fantastic theatre.

Don't forget david young best prop in the world!

David Cruikshank. What a pile of Shiite he was. Remember him getting sent off early doors against Saints at hq for nearly decapitating someone, then we subsequently went on to hammer them with 12 men. Happy Days.

Mark Wilkes was probably the worst player I've seen in first grade. IIRC he was an Aussie who was at a lower grade team (York?). The game he played against Barrow was barely above amateur standard from both sides.

I used to have that Widnes game on a VHS. t was excellent, but Moriarty's elbow remains the worst assault I've seen live. IIRC that was also the game where Roy Powell collapsed in back play. They later said it was due to coming round from a deep concussion, but its hard in hindsight not to wonder if it was the same problem that caused his untimely death.

I've been trying to find this game for years. Izzard's debut is something that always brings back good memories, especially when you knew nothing about him till he appeared on the pitch. He's one of my all-time favourite players, I just wish he could have stayed longer. Anyway, here's another game where he played a blinder. rlIzzard vs Warringtonrl

Rex Terp, wasn't he a full-back?