Former dual-code international Bev Risman dies
Former dual-code international Bev Risman has died at the age of 85, the Rugby Football League has announced.
Risman represented England and toured with the British and Irish Lions in rugby union before switching to league with Leigh in 1961 and later moving to Leeds.
The son of another rugby league great in Gus Risman, he captained Great Britain in the 1968 World Cup and won both the Championship and Challenge Cup with Leeds.
He was forced to retire by injury in 1970 but remained an influential figure in the game. He helped establish student rugby league, managed Fulham and became a director at London Broncos.
Risman was born in Salford but raised in Cumbria, and later returned north to serve as chairman at Carlisle.
He was added to the sport’s roll of honour in 2005, served as RFL president in 2010 and was awarded an OBE for services to rugby league in 2012.
RFL chief executive Tony Sutton said: “On behalf of the RFL and the sport, we send condolences to Bev Risman’s family and friends – and we pay tribute to a man who made such a contribution to both codes of rugby as a player, and to rugby league in such a range of roles after his retirement.”
Leeds announced a minute’s silence would be held prior to Friday’s Super League game between the Rhinos and Huddersfield, with players wearing black armbands as a mark of respect.
Risman made 162 appearances for Leeds, kicking 611 goals and scoring 20 tries for the club. Four of his goals came in Leeds’ famous win in the 1968 ‘Watersplash’ Challenge Cup final against Wakefield.
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Some interesting stats that just proved what my first impression of NZ’s drive to speed up Rugby Union would amount to - fine margins here and there to cut a few seconds off the game and nothing else. To do more there would have to be wholesale changes to the game like doing away with scrums, lineouts and bringing back the ELV’s to have free kicks instead of penalties. Very little chance of it happening but, in the end, Ruby Union would be a 15-man version of Rugby League. There are reasons why Rugby Union is globally more popular that Rugby League and what NZ are also not considering is the unintended consequences of what they want to achieve. This will end up turning Rugby Union into a low value product that will not be acceptable to the paying public. If people really wanted a sped-up version of rugby, then why is Rugby Union globally way more popular than Rugby League? Rugby lovers all over the world are also not stupid and have seen through what NZ are trying to achieve here, selfishly to bring back their glory days of dominance over every other nation and compete with Rugby League that is dominant in Australasia. NH countries just don’t have the cattle, or the fantastic weather needed to play like NZ SR franchises do so good luck to whoever has to try and convince the NH to accept going back to the days of NZ dominance and agreeing to wreck the game in the process. I have serious doubts on the validity of the TV stats presented by GP. All they did was expand the broadcasting base by putting it on free to air, not even any indication of arresting the continued drop in viewership. Match day attendance goes hand in hand with broadcast ratings so if there was an increase in the one you should expect to see it with the other. However, the drop in match day attendance is very evident to the casual highlights package viewer. The only club who looks to be getting solid attendance is the Drua. I am calling it now that NZ’s quest to speed up the game will fail and so will the vote on the 20-minute red card.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
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