A Blast From the Past – cont.
The match-day programme against Warrington Wolves featured extracts from an interview with Trinity Legend Phil Eden (now working for the club once more as part of the under 18 academy set up). Below is an extended version of that interview including memories of how he played against Wakefield – whilst still on Trinity’s books!
“I started in October ’82 at 18 years old, just before Wally Lewis came – I played with Wally Lewis! I never played rugby up to the last year at high school and I had a game with the lads, and they were all playing for amateur sides, so I went and had a couple of games with them. Then I started knocking around with a few lads that weren’t sports orientated, you know, having a few drinks up town, and then I bumped into a couple of the lads and they said ‘we’re a bit short up at Redhill – do you fancy coming up and having a game, you were alright in the school days’. So I thought yeah – I’ll come up’ We played on a Sunday, so we’d go out Saturday night and just have a steady session and then we’d turn up on a Sunday. When I turned up at Redhill club for the first time, Dessie Clarkson was the coach and he said ‘what size boots do you take?’ He says ‘have you got any boots’, and I said ‘10’, so he says ‘here’s some boots – you’re playing’! I’d only gone to watch!!!”
“That start was half way through a season and by the end of the season we’d got into some finals and some Cas’ cup and things like that and they were all down watching Lindsay Rotherforth – there were a few scouts watching him, there were a few clubs after him. So they were all there watching Lindsay and he played on my wing a couple of times for Redhill, and one the parents said ‘Oh, I think they’re impressed with you in the centre’, then John Scaife got me to one side and he said ‘where have you played, what have you done’ and I said ‘I only started this year’ and he said ‘will you come down and train with all the lads that we’ve signed on at your age and we’ll have a look at you’. I had a couple of trial games in the Colts and, I think was Duncan Farrar who signed everyone on in those days, and then that was it – I was signed on!”
“I think I racked about 275 games up in the end – I finished around ’94. David Hobbs had come in half way through the season as Toppo was leaving, so we had like a transition period. Then Toppo left and Hobbsy took over. We started pre-season training and I wasn’t in his plans, so I went to Halifax for a month and actually played against Trinity, for Halifax, whilst on loan! It was funny carry on! I think there was a verbal agreement with Mal Reilly, who was the coach at the time, then Mal left to go to Australia and they brought Steve Simms in. I’d played three games for them and then we had Wakefield Trinity and I knew I couldn’t play as part of the deal that I got told, so I turned up for training, Steve pulled all the first team names out and he says ‘you’re training’, and I said to him ‘I can’t play’, ‘who says that’ says Steve, so he went toddling off, come back and says ‘no, you’re playing in the centre’, so I ended up playing. I wouldn’t sign for Halifax but I played against Wakefield and scored two tried that day!”
“I think we’d gone through most of the season – up to Easter – one year, without winning a game. Then we beat Widnes and we beat Halifax who’d gone to Wembley – we beat them down here after they’d put an under strength squad out, then about a week later we played them at their place, at Thrum Hall, and they put their first team out – the Wembley team - and we beat them there as well!”
And so to the Warrington club who we were facing on Sunday night “I always enjoyed playing there (Wilderspool). Every time we played there I either got a cut or a little niggly injury! I remember playing there one day and we had a drop out from the 20 and I went racing out and the winger actually came out and jumped and his knee hit my head, and you get a vein just on the top of your head and there was blood pumping out / squirting out and the Physio came out and there was me, half concussed, and I can remember looking at the Physio, Martin Petfield, and he’s covered in blood, and I’m thinking ‘where’s all that come from’ – and it was from me – squirting out of my head!
I always remember Paul Cullen – he was a bit of a head-high tackler – he liked to knock you up around the head! Bob Jackson was always a tough character as well. Allan Bateman, he was very wick, he was very under-rated – a quality player. Dessie Drummond – I’ve had some real battles with Dessie. We used to play Leigh in a friendly – one year home and the next one away and always red-hot weather – and I always remember I was in the centre and he was on the wing, but he was one of the strongest blokes I’ve ever come across – physique wise!
And so to the most vivid memory of Phil’s time against the ‘Wire’. “I can remember Bob Jackson, I dropped on a loose ball near his own line – and he came in with the knees on the back of my head and I got tingles all over – I was laying on the floor and I thought there’s something wrong. Anyway, the Physio came on put his hand to the back of my head and when he pulled his hand round there was blood all over it so I jumped up and he say’s ‘no, you can’t’, then he strapped me up and I played on.
We were in the last 5 minutes and Dave Topliss, who were coaching, he’d actually got out of his seat and gone into the boardroom – that’s it, we’ve lost, all doom and gloom, the next minute there was all this cheering and it were me ‘oh, Phil’s scored in the corner’. Anyway, that were it – 2 points!” But of course that’s not how ‘Toppo’ remembers it – his view was that he just liked to be in the changing rooms when the players came off – and he hadn’t given up on the game! As he was walking down the tunnel, he heard the roar, ran back up the tunnel, just in time to see Phil score the try! “That’s not the tale I tell”, says Phil!
I Can remember, I think it was the last tackle and they chipped through, like a little chip over – trying to score again (there were only 2 points in it and I think they were panicking); I think Gary Spencer had taken it, broke through a would-be tackler, handed it on to Billy Conway and I was at the side of Billy. He’d gone over the halfway and there was about 40m to go; he’s given it to me, I’ve looked up and I’ve got covering defence coming for me, so I just pinned my ears back and went for the corner.”
Phil can’t have had many finer moments than this in his career? “Last minute as well, in front of your own supporters – it is a good feeling!
And what do rate the chances for the Wildcats in this next game? “Oh I think so – yeah! One of the first games I saw this year was the first team against Bradford and I went talking to Dave Topliss afterwards and I said to Dave ‘did you see it’ and he said ‘no, I didn’t get to that one’, I says ‘there’s something changed, you could see – they’ve always been there or thereabouts, in the last few years, but I saw something that they’ turned a corner, everything’s come off and it wasn’t just luck, it was people putting hard work into the training – and it was paying off!
We likened the current squad, and it’s team-bonding, to that of the era Phil played in. “Yeah, we had a good team spirit then even though we were middle of the table – but our bond was that we used to play hard – train hard – together. And was there anyone in particular that you were mates with in the side at that time? “Billy Conway – I was big mates with Billy, we used to go away on holiday and what have you with the wives and kids. I still see Billy, but there’s still no chance of getting a pint out of him!
Once again, many thanks to Phil Eden for his time in putting this article together.
You can read Mike Lampkowski’s memories of the ’81 Challenge Cup game at Fulham in this weeks programme against London Skolars.
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