Roger Millward, who has died aged 68, was a Great Britain Rugby League captain whose try secured the last Ashes series victory over Australia in 1970.
A half-back, he was the record try scorer in the history of Hull Kingston Rovers, with 207 in 406 appearances, and won 11 major trophies as a player and coach with the club.
Nicknamed “Roger the Dodger” for his electrifying pace and elusive running, standing only 5 ft 4 in and weighing less than 11 stone, Millward was a Lilliputian in a land of giants. His physique was alien to the bruising sport of Rugby League but he always claimed that his size was an advantage, helping him to weave past larger and more formidable opponents.
However, even his considerable evasive skills and fleetness of foot were powerless to avoid an opponent’s illegal challenge during his greatest achievement in domestic Rugby League, when he guided Hull KR to a 10-5 Challenge Cup Final victory over arch rivals Hull at Wembley Stadium in 1980.
It was the only Challenge Cup final between the two Hull clubs in the 121-year history of the sport and Millward was Hull KR’s player-coach. Hull knew that he posed the biggest threat to their chances of victory, and they targeted him so fiercely that his jaw was broken and dislocated after only 13 minutes.
Nevertheless, Millward refused to leave the field and inspired his side to such a famous triumph that a function room at their Craven Park stadium in East Hull is still named the “10-5 Suite”.
Millward knew immediately that his jaw was broken, as he later recalled, but he pressed on regardless. “Fortunately,” he said, “a few seconds later, I went in to tackle Hull’s Steve Norton and my jaw caught his knee. The impact caused my jaw to click back in place and I was able to carry on playing.”
He was renowned for his sportsmanship, and he bore his opponents no malice, even accepting the offer of a pint of beer from the perpetrator of the injury in the Wembley bar after the match, before heading to hospital for surgery.
That Wembley final, watched by 95,000 supporters, was the proudest moment of Millward’s domestic career and he often reminisced about how Hull became a ghost town that day.
“I always remember a home-made sign someone placed on the road out of the city with hundreds of coaches and cars heading to London,” he recalled. “ 'Last one out turn the lights off!’ ”
Roger Millward was born at Castleford, West Yorkshire, on September 16 1947, the younger of two brothers. His father Billy, a former professional footballer, was a miner and his mother Ivy a factory supervisor.
He was educated at Wheldon Lane School, close to the town’s Rugby League ground, where he was a regular visitor. The Great Britain half-backs Alan Hardisty and Keith Hepworth were his idols. He later studied at Castleford Grammar School before training as an electrician at Wheldale Colliery, where he worked for 15 years.
Millward’s rugby prowess was honed playing for Castleford juniors in a televised inter-town tournament, and he realised his ambition of becoming a professional player with his home-town club, making his debut as a 16-year-old winger. Despite being unable to claim a regular half-back spot, owing to the form of the established Hardisty and Hepworth, Millward became one of Great Britain’s youngest internationals when he was selected in the pivotal stand-off role against France at the age of 18.
Notwithstanding his impressive record of having scored 16 tries in 40 appearances, Castleford then accepted a £6,000 offer from Hull KR for the teenage Millward; the player recalled later that he “was shocked and disappointed at being shown the door by Castleford, but it turned out to be the best move of my life”. He kicked 607 goals for Hull KR, who appointed him captain at the age of 21 and player coach at 30 after the sudden death of Harry Poole.
According to Colin Hutton, the Hull KR president and a former Great Britain manager, Millward was “the greatest player this country has ever seen, a true legend”. Even opponents were full of respect for his talents and Johnny Whiteley, the former captain and coach of Hull, the rival team from the other side of the city, said: “A finer gentleman you could not ask to meet.”
Millward made a big impact on the international stage too, playing an integral role in Great Britain’s last Ashes victory in 1970. He was not part of the first Test defeat in Brisbane – his old club colleague Hardisty having been chosen instead – but was recalled for the second Test, when he scored a record-equalling 20 points in a 28-7 victory.
The third Test was at Sydney Cricket Ground, where Millward, a keen cricket follower, was inspired by seeing the photographs of famous England cricketers in the visitors’ dressing room. He sprinted 40 yards to score the series-winning try in a 21-17 success, rejoicing in the sight of “77,000 Aussies crying at the Sydney Cricket Ground”.
Millward captained Great Britain on the 1978 Kangaroo tour after a short stint playing for the Australian club Cronulla in 1976. He never forgot his first visit to Papua New Guinea where he was puzzled by the proliferation of red pavements.
Asking a local about it, he was told that the stains were caused by all the betel nuts the Papuans chewed before spitting out the juice. “I never saw anything like that in Castleford,” said Millward.
All in all he won 47 caps for Great Britain and England, and Hull KR named a stand in his honour at their ground. “I expected to see a small plaque over a door,” Millward explained after the unveiling, “but when I drove to the ground my name was emblazoned in letters 20 ft high on the stand.”
His last senior match was that Wembley final in 1980, also the last time Hull KR won the trophy, and he retired after breaking his jaw for the fourth time in a reserve comeback at Batley the following season. He later had a brief spell as coach at Halifax before retiring from the sport to work as a transport manager and later premises manager at Royds School in Rothwell, where the current Leeds and England winger Ryan Hall was a pupil.
Millward was appointed MBE in 1983, having been inducted in the Rugby League Hall of Fame in 1980. As a sign of respect Hull KR announced after his death that they had permanently “retired” his No 6 jersey.
Roger Millward, who suffered from cancer in recent years, is survived by his wife Carol, whom he married in 1968, and a daughter.
Roger Millward, born September 16 1947, died May 2 2016
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