Where are they now? 2003 Sale Sharks vs St Helens 13-a-side crosscode game
The rugby codes unite at Headingley later this afternoon for the first time in 22 years for the first-ever 13-a-side ‘745 Game’, which has been named after the shirt numbers worn by Rob Burrow, Ed Slater and Doddie Weir.
Ex-England stars Danny Cipriani, Billy Twelvetrees, and Tom Youngs are among the former stars playing in the game to aid people living with Motor Neurone Disease.
The last time the codes played together was at Knowsley Road, St Helens, in January 2003. Sale beat St Helens 41-39 after scoring all of their points in the first half. Steve Hanley and Phil Davies both scored a brace of tries. Mark Cueto, Stuart Turner, and Dean Schofield also crossed the line, and Richard Wigglesworth kicked three goals.
Chris Joynt, Steve Maden, Paul Newlove, Ade Gardner, John Kirkpatrick and Jason Hooper all scored for the Super League champions, playing for the first time in two months, while Sean Long, who kicked two goals, missed an injury-time conversation which would have snatched a draw.
Sale Sharks
Jason Robinson: A dual-code international who was a World Cup winner in 2023, has worked in the media as a brand ambassador and runs the Jason Robinson Foundation.
Mark Cueto: Winger, who played in the 2007 World Cup final, worked in Sharks’ commercial department on radio and television. He is now sales director for a high-speed broadband supplier in Hale, Cheshire.
Jim Naylor: Winger, who won a Premiership title with Newcastle Falcons, worked as a sales manager for Carlsberg UK and is now a PE teacher at Rodillian Academy.
Dan Harris: Centre has carved out a successful business career in development and marketing and is now a leadership and Sales Trainer and an Executive Coach.
Steve Hanley: A winger who scored a try against Wales at Wembley Stadium on his only test appearances has worked in hospitality and is now business development manager for Sedulo in Manchester.
Jos Baxendell: England international who played at centre or fly half worked as a Surveyor and is now a Property Consultant at BE Group. He is also the director of a wellness studio.
Richard Wigglesworth: Scrum-half won seven Premiership titles with three clubs, was interim head coach at Leicester Tigers, and is now an assistant coach with England.
Jim Thorp: An England under-21 loosehead who spent nine years in the RAF and now lives in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, owns JT Ethos, Master Personal Trainers.
Charl Marais: Springbok hooker returned to South Africa, where he was director of WP fresh produce market and now runs Pro-Seal Cleaning Services in Cape Town.
Stuart Turner: England tighthead who also played loosehead coached at Caldy and Waterloo and was the Operations Manager for Neogen Corporation.
Dean Schofield: A lock who won two England caps, he worked for GB Homes and is now working for a Lifestyle Interiors firm in Cheshire he owns with his wife Gemma.
Pete Anglesea: An England A international back row who has spent nearly 27 years on the Sharks coaching staff working with the first team and the academy.
Apollo Perelini: No. 8, who was a dual code international, is now based in Dubai, where he was director of sport for a school but owns a rugby skills academy and a female football academy.
Replacements:
Richard Wilks: Flanker who became a player’s agent, founding Green Room Sports before joining Leicester Tigers as Head of Performance Recruitment and is now General Manager at Welford Road.
Phil Davies: England under-21 back row finished his career in France and is now living in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, working as a building surveyor.
Jonny Roddam: Hooker went into teaching PE and geography at Kirkham Grammar School, where he was head of Boys Sports and is now Head of Rugby.
Paul Arnold: Lock was an RFU Community coach and now owns a taxi business in St Helens and is Head Coach of West Park St Helens.
Matt Parr: Back row became Leicester Tigers Senior Strength and Conditioning Coach before a stint in rugby league with Catalan Dragons, returning to Welford Road in June 2024 as Head of Athletic Performance.
Chris Jones: England A international back row who became an Independent Financial Advisor at St James’s Place Wealth Management and Swiftsure Wealth Management.
Mel Deane: Ireland A centre a Health & Fitness Expert is now a fitness consultant in South West London.
And the players who started for St. Helens.
Darren Albert: Full-back is now a maintenance planner for the City of Gold Coast; Steve Maden: Winger is now welfare manager for Leigh Leopards; Martin Gleeson: Centre is now Warrington Wolves First Team Coach; Paul Newlove: Centre works in Wakefield at Trinity Academy Cathedral School; Ade Gardner: Winger is head of performance at Warrington Wolves; Tommy Martyn: Stand-off is still working for Saints, where he is the bars manager; Sean Long: Scrum-half is the head coach at Oldham RLFC; Barry Ward: Prop is the General Manager of Female Pathways and Junior League at Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs; Jon Wilkin: Hooker owns an artisan bakery Pot Kettle Black; Stuart Jones: Prop is a project manager for sports analytics company Kitman Labs; Mark Edmondson: Second row is a coaching and mentoring consultant; Chris Joynt: Second row runs Sure Fire Heating & Maintenance in St Helens; John Kirkpatrick: Loose-forward is now a fitness coach with Sale Sharks.
Latest Comments
Like I've said before about your idea (actually it might have been something to do with mine, I can't remember), I like that teams will a small sustainable league focus can gain the reward of more consistent CC involvement. I'd really like the most consistent option available.
Thing is, I think rugby can do better than footballs version. I think for instance I wanted everyone in it to think they can win it, where you're talking about the worst teams not giving up because they are so far off the pace we get really bad scoreline when that and giving up to concentrate on the league is happening together.
So I really like that you could have a way to remedy that, but personally I would want my model to not need that crutch. Some of this is the same problem that football has. I really like the landscape in both the URC and Prem, but Ireland with Leinster specifically, and France, are a problem IMO. In football this has turned CL pool stages in to simply cash cow fixtures for the also ran countries teams who just want to have a Real Madrid or ManC to lose to in their pool for that bumper revenue hit. It's always been a comp that had suffered for real interest until the knockouts as well (they might have changed it in recent years?).
You've got some great principles but I'm not sure it's going to deliver on that hard hitting impact right from the start without the best teams playing in it. I think you might need to think about the most minimal requirement/way/performance, a team needs to execute to stay in the Champions Cup as I was having some thougt about that earlier and had some theory I can't remember. First they could get entry by being a losing quarter finalist in the challenge, then putting all their eggs in the Champions pool play bucket in order to never finish last in their pool, all the while showing the same indifference to their league some show to EPCR rugby now, just to remain in champions. You extrapolate that out and is there ever likely to be more change to the champions cup that the bottom four sides rotate out each year for the 4 challenge teams? Are the leagues ever likely to have the sort of 'flux' required to see some variation? Even a good one like Englands.
I'd love to have a table at hand were you can see all the outcomes, and know how likely any of your top 12 teams are going break into Champions rubyg on th back it it are?
Go to commentsYou always get idiots who go overboard. What else is new? I ignore them. Why bother?
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