It's just so difficult to not be swayed by Their respective performances since retirement.

Gary Schofield. Far superior record at the highest level (international). Also, scored tries at a higher rate than Edwards at club level and far more points. Edwards played a big chunk of his career at Wigan when they were effectively professional when nobody else was and so were scoring freely. The stats speak for themselves. No contest.

Because the all time great wigan team blocked his path and every other teams for that matter.Schofield signed for Leeds in 87', right at the start of the Wigan reign and finished just as SL started and Wigans domination slowed down. If it wasn't for Wigan being so far ahead of the rest its not far fetched to Say schoey could have had at least 2 CC winners medals and a championship one in his collection.

Yet, he was still selected and performed well for GB and had a successful stint in Australia.

Certainly, Scihofield was more naturally talented and Edwards had the luxury of playing in a heavily star studded Wigan side.
Edwards was as tough as hell though and nobody can forget him playing in a winning Wigan side at Wembley with a broken cheekbone and commenting afterwards that he didnt' want the opposition to think that they'd hurt him (even though his face was totally busted).
I cant think of too many players ,in any position that would have done that and in the modern game, they wouldn't be allowed to continue.

You do realise that Leeds were the first club to go full time professional don't you? Then Wigan followed closely by Widnes. St Helens whilst not offically full time had a lot of players whose only job was rugby.

Don’t spoil their fun with facts.