i always thought that Mick Cassidy was as tough as they come. Dont think i saw anyone ever get the better of him. Ian Robert hammered him with a monster hit in the Wigan v Aus game and Mick just jumped straight back up and played the ball. I could not believe that he just stood up as if nothing happened. You used to watch opposition forwards sucking it in when he was on the park because he would just beast them relentlessly.

Mean dean is an obvious one

Tallis, Paul Harrigan also

some may disagree, but in his pomp Stu Fielden knew how to put it about and i remember him leathering Jason Smith in the WCC for the Bulls. I also remember Barrie Mac coming a cropper after trying it on in one of there legendary scuffles. Brian Noble alluded to it in a post match interview saying somthing along the lines of "not mention anynames, but the master got shown up by the pupil today"

Furner and his "hard nuts" did their messing about off the field.

The fight between Gorden Tallis and Terry O'Connor in '97 was a beauty.

Whereafter Tez stated to the press that his wife ave harder punches.

Scully, i think it was in his contract to batter someone every match

What about Alan Prescott playing for about an hour against Australia in a test match with a BROKEN ARM because no subs in those days. Also a Gentleman by the name of William John Boston was no slouch if the occasion arose.

If we are talking fights the tamati v dowling in 85 was a blinder !

How about hardest half-backs - Andy Gregory would be a good candidate. He was more than happy to trade punches with the biggest forwards....

Shaun Edwards for playing on with a fractured eye socket & depressed cheekbone in the 1990 Cup Final was hard in the sense of brave & fearless. In the other sense, Joe Lydon & Andy Platt both showed it in that game, when they took revenge on Paul Bishop & Bob Jackson respectively for the challenge on Edwards.

Teams of the late 80's seemed to be absolute full of hard players, but to answer the original poster, I don't think today's players are any less hard, they just can't get away with as much stuff now that everything's recorded & pored over by the disciplinary committee looking for reasons to hand out bans. Watched the Manly game again recently, and about 60% of the players on the pitch would have received some kind of charge these days.

Rob Burrow, in the challenge cup vs hull

Maybe not 'Hard' in the conventional sense of this thread but I think Justin Murphy (formerly of Catalans) deserves a mention for what happened in our 30-0 home win in 2007. Won't forget how he ended up going flying over the advertising hoardings in the North Stand and landing back first on concrete and still managed to get up and continue playing.

Depends what you mean by "hard".

If you mean who would win a no holds barred fight, then I would say Ian Roberts or Des Drummond.

If you mean who would carry on regardless of any pain I would say Dean Bell