Name them:

Left to Right... Gavin Jones, Wally Fullerton-Smith, Terry Webb, Trevor Paterson, Steve Bleakley, Ricky Lulham, Trevor Clark, Tony Currie, Neil Hunt.

Front... Lech Walesa.

I always thought Neil Hunt had a beard ?......Not that it's really relevant.

Tony Currie was my first ever "favourite" Leeds player.........that was a great season, all those Aussies and we still won nothing....knocked out by Widnes in the Cup 14-4 in the first round, if I remember rightly.

Trevor Clark, a hooker if I recall, but for some reason I remember him playing full back in a game away at Feathersone.....though I don't think it was the same year all the Aussies were here.

Ok, that's enough drivel for one post.

William Eve is bang on the money there. The only Leeds 1984/85 antipodean missing from that line-up is Eric Grothe, who was a late arrival - unable to make his debut until New Year's day so I guess the photo was taken sometime late '84.

Edit: Feels like only yesterday but incredibly it's almost exactly thirty years ago.

Great photo. A Master Electrician with a team full of journeymen (??)

Wasn't it Terry Webb who insisted on having the sleeves on the 13 shirt cut short, incurring the wrath of Kevin Rayne?

Well done William Eve, you win the prize. Unfortunately for you it's a season ticket.

Mixed bag of Anzacs in my memory. Bleakley and Lulham were poor, as was Fullerton-Smith who had a good reputation. Webb and Clark were both decent club players throughout their UK careers. Jones was young but played well for us, Paterson was very good and Currie and Hunt were excellent.

But god knows how disruptive and insulting it must have been to rest of the team to have so many come over just for a few months. Makes it less of a mystery why we never won anything.

Meanwhile, it appears Maurice is so happy because he's in the process of laying an egg.

Great memories.

Except for the Kestrel Lager.

Still got that shirt somewhere inthe loft

Leeds developed a stiffy for signing loads of Australians (Queenslanders in particular) as a result of the [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed-JTc_Wv8sQLD TOUR of the UK in 1985[/url.

Fullerton-Smith, Webb, Currie and [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbRdCj3dHlcBleakley[/url all played for [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZnFINOP2jIRedcliffe Dolphins[/url.

Paterson and Jones played for Brisbane Easts.

Hunt and Grothe played for Parramatta.

Lulham? I've absolutely idea. Guessing he was a local park player who just happened to be a mate of one of the other signed Queenslanders.

Clark was a Kiwi who Leeds signed on the back of his impressive performances for NZ Maori during their [url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/39654/new-zealand-maori-league-team-1983TOUR OF THE UK in 1983[/url.

*Mini international tours to the UK were a feature back then. [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc1BelPg_NQAuckland also toured the UK in 1987[/url.

Serious question, didn't Maurice coach Wigan to promotion after they were relegated?

=#FF0000*** Correct. Wigan were relegated to Division 2 during the 1979-80 season under Kel Coslett finishing 4th from bottom (13th out of 16).

They were promoted back to the Championship (or Division 1) in 1980-81 under Bamford by finishing 2nd on the ladder behind York.

It was 4 up, 4 down back then of course... lovely stuff




=#FF0000*** EDIT ***
According to the reliable Bilko website, the coach was [url=http://wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/index.php?page_id=400George Fairbairn[/url (player/coach) during their promotion year of 1980-81 and [url=http://wigan.rlfans.com/fusion_pages/index.php?page_id=401Bamford[/url was coach in 1981-82 when they finished 11th.

if memory serves right, I think Ricky Lulham married one of our cheerleaders

Like a Boss...

Photo taken in the last year of my exile in a land far, far away where rugby league was unheard of and getting the results for matches was nigh on impossible.

The year (or two?) after this on my return I was courted by Huddersfield at Fartown for sponsorship to pay for Mr Schofields appointment as player coach.

I shudder at the thought of how THAT could have turned out.

IIRC Ricky Lulham was from Wauchope in NSW. He may have been one of those Aussies that turned up in England on spec, or maybe he was recommended by one of Leeds' former players (Ted Verrenkamp seemed to do a bit of scouting for a time).

Ricky Lulham came over to play for Leeds the season before the mass invasion of '84. He made his Leeds debut in an 'A' team game at Headingley watched by a crowd of over 1,000 (unheard of in those days) who had turned out to witness four Antipodean newcomers. Trevor Clark was on the bench with Lulham at stand-off - the other two were Mark and Richard Laurie.

Richard Laurie was a centre who never made it into the Leeds 1st grade side but the other three all did along with Leeds' other overseas signings (their first since the ban was lifted) Steve Martin, Terry Webb and Dean Bell.

1983/84 was also the first season for the cheerleaders - who were all sacked after six outings as the club decided it was getting too cold .... much to their disgust. In the end the club backed down after the YEP canvassed the opinions of the fans (allegedly). Earlier it was recalled that Lulham returned home with one of them, I remember that also.

Was Norman Francis also playing that evening? His 'fan club' usually added 100 or so extra to an attendance at Friday night 'A' team fixtures.

NOOOORRRMAN! NOOOORRRMAN!

Was the Auckland tour match Schofield's debut? Seem to remember him scoring a couple of tries against them, one an intercept.

Yes, that was Schofield's debut. Scored a couple of tries and got stretchered off in what was a pretty brutal match. Those Auckland boys weren't here to make friends.

[urlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc1BelPg_NQ[/url

thanks for that

Games versus Auckland back in the 80s and early 90s on GB tours always seemed to get rather heated. I’ve a DVD of the 1990 tour where the match vs Auckland ends up in a running battle. One scrap starts on our 20m line and ends up on theirs. Every tackle would be penalised nowadays yet for the most part they don’t even get a reaction from the offended party.

For all the faux disgust shown by the commentators the crowd loved it.

There’s also a clip on youtube of a big origin punch up in the early 90s where Darrell Eastlake commentating says “nothing wrong with that, two blokes having a go!” as Bella and Harragon knock seven bells out of each other.

Bring back the biff etc.

Was the 1990 tour the one where Roy Powell played some part in all 15 games?

Pretty sure he figured in all the tests. Not sure about the others. We put in some forgetable performances in the midweek games but we had such greats as Sean Irwin, Ian Smales and Roger Simpson lining up for GB in those.

Quite a contrast with the likes of Schofield and Mike Gregory whose performances in the tests were immense.