Just been doing an RL quiz to stem the boredom and a question about this guy popped up.
What a fall from grace - All Blacks to Leeds to Salford then to Keighley Cougars (no disrespect to them) in the old Third Division, all in the space of five years!
Who was the biggest waste of money though? Him or John Gallagher?

I always liked him as a player, a wholehearted effort guaranteed every time he put on the jersey it seemed - which was somewhat of a rarity amongst Leeds squads of that era.

He had plenty of faults but, I'd go along with that.

I always thought he was ok, put in plenty of effort.
Still feel a bit sorry for Gallagher, seemingly ostracised by Schofield and his Town Hall Tavern drinking cronies.

Whats Gallagher doing nowadays ? a damn sight better than Schofield I would imagine

Rugby and PE teacher at Uppingham school I believe. Calls himself Mr Gallagher and turns out some great rugby players.

Has he moved on - I know he was Director of Sport at Colfe's at one point?

Out of the two, Brooke Cowden was definately the worst. I can't recall ever seeing him brak a tackle.

I think you may be right on that one Andy.

The only mystery bigger than how Brooke-Cowden ended up at Leeds is how he ever got a place with 'All Blacks.'

The clue is in the name..I would also check which school he attended...

Only worked that way in England. He as an open side I think in Union, so I suspect he was very skilled at that part of the game. I read an interview with him and his height was the main issue in Union. At 5'10" he was too short for a back row in the 1980's. Lifting was banned then and lineouts were actually a contest (a fairly shambolic one at times). If he'd played now it wouldn't have mattered how tall he was.

I don't really remember too many of his performances, even though I saw quite a lot of them. I guess that sums up his Leeds career.

I have never heard confirmation of this, but heard a rumour at the time that we signed the wrong player. The player we were actually after was someone with a name like Zim Zam Brookes. If the rumour was true god knows what happened.
Mark BC was a very average player, but he did want to play for Leeds and never could be accused of lacking in effort or commitment. Something that cannot be said for a lot of the team at that time.

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinzan_Brookehe was good player[/url

He was about as good as david young, RU forwards as good as they are hardly ever make it in RL, He was reserve for Micheal Jones? a bible bashing flanker who refused to play for the all blacks on a sunday, so Brooke Cowden got a couple of games in the world cup & maurice barnpot signed him, poor lad was stuck in RL then, Would not have even entertained leaving RU nowadays.

Leeds were hopeless at scouting back then.

Widnes got a decent union forward in Koloto not long after this.

To be fair to Doug Laughton, he may not have been the worlds greatest hands on coach on the training paddock but he could spot talented players in the other code who had a chance of making it in League.

In the backs didn't Laughton always look at Union inside centre for League potential.

Craig Innes springs to mind here. Not all 'All Blacks' were duff recruits at Leeds.

BC was honest enough. He went to Salford purely because he got man of the match in a game against them. That's the way it seemed, anyway.

He played in the Yorkshire Cup semi final in 1988 against Northern (or Hull?) at HQ. We were losing and him and Deadly Medley came off the bench in the 2nd half. Medly got a 20 minute hat-trick to save the game. IIRC, of course.

Brookie was a smashing fella and one of a very select breed of our players in the 80's.That is,one with a winners medal.
As has been previously mentioned,not the most talented player ever to grace the blue and amber but for commitment,work ethic,and passion he was one of the best.
I still find a great shame he never made it in league.
I do know he'll be absolutely thrilled to be remembered and I'll pass on your regards next time I speak to him.

It seems to me that he was the Simon Worrall of his day.....

Very true - Davies, Koloto, Kebbie, Offiah, Tait, Howard, Devereaux, Moriarty, Innes etc.

Mind you, similar to the Brooke-Cowden story I heard a rumour that Douglas signed Innes when he'd originally been looking at Tuigamala.

Nay lad. We beat Hull 12-8 in the semi. Slammin Sam Backo came off the bench to score the winner. About the only good thing he did other than a man of the match performance v Oldham on New Years Day later that season

That is correct, Douglas went to watch Inga initially, but was much more impressed by Innes's performances during the RU world cup, which was jointly hosted by England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and France in 1991, and subsequently offered the terms to craig instead, shame he didn't sign both



IMO i thought that Innes was a fantastic player, so too did Dean Bell, who when asked in his opinion who was the best player in the old 1st division at the time that Wigan were winning everything, he replied Innes!

It was a shame that we couldn't have held of him for longer, but the lure of the Perth Western Reds proved too appealing

His debut (against York?) was the first game I took our lass to.

Always thought it odd he didn't get a game for the Kiwis.

Ah, it must have been an earlier rouond.

You've jog my mind regarding that Hull game. Backo went over the line with the entire Hull team trying to tackle him. Or so it seemed.