Dear Assembled Southstanders (and especially tvoc),

I was just wondering if you might help me. My wife has been digging out old school photos, and on one of them found somebody she was at school with who she thought "might have played rugby" for somebody. The player in question is Marcus Vassilokopolouss (sic, almost certainly). Obviously I remembered him, and it prompted me to think of the 1994 and 1995 Cup finals. I'm pretty sure he played in one if not both of those. If he did so, I imagine it was as back-up hooker? If so, back-up to whom? I know i have programmes somewhere, but they'll be in the loft, and it's quicker to ask you lot than to go and dig them out. I would like the full Leeds line-ups for both those games pretty please.

Lowes?

That was what I thought, certainly if it was 1995. Did Lowes play in 1994 as well? I were only a nipper then me.

Leeds V Wigan - 30th April 1994:

Leeds:
Alan Tait
Jim Fallon, Kevin Iro, Craig Innes, Francis Cummins
Graham Holroyd, Garry Schofield
Neil Harmon, James Lowes, Harvey Howard
Gary Mercer, Richie Eyres, Ellery Hanley
Subs:
Marcus Vassilakopoulos, Mike O'Neill

Leeds V Wigan - 29th April 1995

Leeds:
Alan Tait
Jim Fallon, Kevin Iro, Craig Innes, Francis Cummins
Garry Schofield, Graham Holroyd
Harvey Howard, James Lowes, Esene Faimalo
Gary Mercer, Richie Eyres, Ellery Hanley
Subs:
George Mann, Neil Harmon

FWIW Marcus Vassilakopoulos' record for Leeds reads:

Played 15 + 29 + 1 (NPS), Tries 2, Points 8

Also while I'm here:

The Wigan teams:

Leeds V Wigan - 30th April 1994:

Wigan:
Gary Connolly
Va'aiga Tuigamala, Dean Bell, Barrie-Jon Mathers, Martin Offiah
Frana Botica, Shaun Edwards
Kelvin Skerrett, Martin Dermott, Andy Platt
Denis Betts, Andrew Farrell, Phil Clarke
Subs:
Sam Panapa, Mick Cassidy

Leeds V Wigan - 29th April 1995

Wigan:
Henry Paul
Jason Robinson, Va'aiga Tuigamala, Gary Connolly, Martin Offiah
Frana Botica, Shaun Edwards
Kelvin Skerrett, Martin Hall, Neil Cowie
Denis Betts, Mick Cassidy, Phil Clarke
Subs:
Paul Atcheson, Andrew Farrell

Think Vassy played second row sometimes as well didn't he?

Not sure he ever started in the second row but he certainly played loose forward as well as hooker.

Wigan:
Gary Connolly
Va'aiga Tuigamala, Dean Bell, Barrie-Jon Mathers, Martin Offiah
Frana Botica, Shaun Edwards
Kelvin Skerrett, Martin Dermott, Andy Platt
Denis Betts, Andrew Farrell, Phil Clarke
Subs:
Sam Panapa, Mick Cassidy

I bet you're glad you're not facing that team this Friday.

How many of the current Leeds team do you think would get into that side?

Is the answer Keith Senior and two extra subs?

Quite possibly,

Infact looking at those teams, quite a few of the current Leeds side would struggle to get into the 94 - 95 Leeds sides.

Doesn't it just show you how the standards have dropped?

£ for £ those pre SL squads would have probably smashed the salary cap had it been around in those days and set at a sensible level.

It also shows how a pre professional Rugby Union was a good thing for Rugby League.

Sinfield instead of Hanley??

Webb in for Gary Connolly maybe?

Exactly. I suspect standards of player have more levelled than dropped. How many of those Wigan and Leeds players wouldn't have got into more or less any other team in the league that year?

I think you're massively over-estimating the 1994-95 Leeds team.

Or you have an inflated opinion of Neil Harmon, Marcus vassikolpolous, Graham Holroyd, Mike O'Neill and even Francis Cummins.

In fact, of those Leeds teams only Fallon (because this team has no recognised right winger), one of Iro or Innes and Hanley would make the current Leeds team.

Standards may have dropped alarmingly at Wigan now they have to face a level playing field but let's not get carried away eh? Standards have not dropped throughout the league.

How was GB doing against the Aussies in 1994-1995? International results were comparative.

You're comparing one of the greatest from that era with the Current garbage Wigan team. Compare Standards at the league's current standard bearers, Leeds and St Helens, not with the poor relations, Wigan.

Probably true. I'd probably give Harvey Howard a place in the current team as well. Although in truth I'm not totally sure who he'd replace. I'm tempted to say Hanley would play too, although I think in truth the Hanley that played for Wigan in the early 90s would get in the team, the version that played in 1994 and 1995 was probably not as influential on that team as Sinfield is on the current one.

I reckon they were paid, if adjusted to reflect inflation, a lot more in 1994 and 1995. I wonder how much Richie Eyres, for example, was getting, compared to JJB, or how Hanley's wages compared to Sinfield's.

Whatever they were paid, it was too much.

Reading Tait and Schofield's books they candidly admit to accepting defeat in those cup finals against Wigan. I hate that. I despise it. I know, in reality, that might've always been the outcome as that was on of the true great Wigan teams but these guys were full time pro's. highly paid and they appeared happy with 2nd best.

I don't reckon a single one of this current Leeds team would accept 2nd best.

Remember you are talking to a pie muncher - he thinks a salary cap is something you put on your head! !

How could you break something that didn't exist.

Sinfield before Hanley, McGuire before Schofield, never also I'd have Iro and Innes before Senior.

How can you pick Boderus when he's manged only one game for Leeds?

We never suffered the same humiliation as an International side then that we did in October / November.

As I said above, Hanley was never quite the player for Leeds that he was for Wigan, good though he still was. Sinfield has captained the club to probably the most successful period in it's history, and while unspectacular is an absolutely pivotal player in that success.



Debatable, but for all his huge talents, Schofield never delivered on the big stage for Leeds. McGuire has scored tries at vital moments in more big games than you could shake a stick at. CCSF 2003, GFs 2004, 2005, 2008 to get the ball rolling. Sometimes attitude is as important as ability.



That again could be the subject of long debate. I might well be persuaded take Innes over Senior, just, but not Iro. Again, look at what the respective players have actually achieved for the club, not for other clubs, for Leeds. It is after all, their spells at Leeds, and specifically 1994-95 that we are debating.



Has anyone? I could pick our triple-title-winning hooker Matt Diskin though. Again, I remind you that we are comparing the 1994-95 Leeds version of James Lowes, not the one-man trophy machine he went on to become with Bradford.



Perhaps not to the same scoreline. Never won much though did we?

No, but the point was well made that Sinfield is more important to this succesful leeds team than hanley was to that under-acheiving Leeds team.

Every time. Every single time. In a heart-beat.

Good for you. based upon their Leeds careers I wouldn't. I'd have one of them to play along side him though.

My memory is a little hazy but weren't we eliminated by NZ in the 1995 World Cup. Only back then, NZ were runners up and not winners.

We lost to Australia in the 95 World Cup Final.

On the team comparison a lot of people are comparing individuals sheer ability rather than how they fit in to the team and how the team as a whole plays.

The present Leeds team is exactly that, a team. The shower that played in 94/95 were a set of cliques and individuals who always cracked under pressure. Sure Hanley was a great player but even he couldn't lift that Leeds team to win a trophy.

In 95 we won all our group games (including Australia) but lost to the Green and Golds in the final.

Schofield's ability with McGuire's attitude would have been one hellova player.

You're thinking of 2000 G1, when we shipped forty points at home to the Kiwis in the semi-final

That's it. Cheers,