Josh Hodson may not hail from a rugby league hotbed, but after shining first with London Broncos and then Batley Bulldogs, he has now made it to Super League with Castleford Tigers.
THE promotion of a London Broncos team packed with homegrown stars has given Super League a much more national feel this season.
As well as players like Lewis Bienek, Iliess Macani and James Meadows from inside the capital, the Broncos have men from all the neighbouring home counties – Alex Walker from Essex, Rob Butler and the Leyland brothers from Kent, Matt Davies from Surrey, Marcus Stock from Buckinghamshire and Jordan Williams from Hertfordshire.
Their reach even extends into the East Midlands, with captain Will Lovell hailing from Northamptonshire and Sam Davis (along with brother Matt, of Leigh) from Leicestershire.
And they might still have had one from the West Midlands, too, if only Josh Hodson hadn’t got away.
Shropshire isn’t quite as renowned a breeding ground for rugby league players as Yorkshire, Lancashire or Cumbria. Telford’s Ricky Bailey was the first to reach the top, making two appearances for St Helens before returning to the union code far more popular in those parts.
But now Hodson, after signing a two-year contract with Castleford, could put the county on the rugby league map.
The 23-year-old hails from the small market town of Newport, seven miles north-east of Telford, and began his childhood playing the two most common sporting passions in Salop: rugby union and cricket.
“I was more of a rugby union lad growing up, and I played cricket in the summer,” he explains.
“I never really fancied playing rugby league until one weekend, some of the lads I play union with played for the local league team (Telford Raiders) and they said ‘we’re short a number, why don’t you come down and give it a go?’
“I went down and I haven’t looked back since. I fell in love with it instantly.
“(I loved) the speed of the game, and the physicality. I just enjoyed it much more than union. I thought it was more of a game for me.”
Not that he was a complete newcomer to the 13-a-side game: “I watched quite a lot of it growing up. It was just rugby (to me). I’ll put any sport on the tele. I enjoyed watching it.
“I hadn’t thought about playing it until I started, but then I thought ‘I really enjoyed it, let’s give this a good crack’.”
That was at the age of ten, and he continued to combine three sports until joining the old Midlands Hurricanes academy programme three years later.
“At that point I had to solely focus on rugby league,” explains Hodson, and it proved a good decision, as he secured a place in the London Broncos academy at 16 following a trial.
By 2020, he had progressed to the first team, and he signed his first full-time contract after making two appearances at the start of the year. Following Covid disruption, Hodson scored four tries in 17 appearances the following season.
But while he was on the way up, the Broncos were on the way down, moving to semi-professional status ahead of the 2022 campaign. That left Hodson with a difficult choice.
“London were going part-time at the end of the year that I left. I thought I was ready for a new challenge, to see where I could go,” he says.
That proved to be at Batley where, alongside Meadows (who made the same move at the same time and is also now back in Super League after two years as a Bulldog), he combined playing with working for the club’s sporting foundation, which involved coaching in schools alongside other community projects.
“It was good to get involved with them. It was something new for me and something I enjoyed doing, but it probably helped motivate me to get back into a full-time environment,” he says.
Hodson’s form on the field made that a virtual certainty. He admits he struggled at first with the move north, but after scoring five tries in 26 games in his first season to help Batley reach the Championship Grand Final, he reached a new level in 2023.
The powerful centre scored 19 tries – nine of them in the Challenge Cup, in which he finished well clear as top scorer – and created many more, not least an audacious out-the-back offload for Dale Morton in the 1895 Cup final at Wembley as Batley narrowly lost to Halifax.
It was reported that half of Super League were interested in him at that stage, and it was Castleford who secured his signature. No doubt the presence of Craig Lingard – then as assistant coach, later appointed head coach – was a factor, as it was he who had so helped Hodson develop in his time as Batley boss.
Lingard says: “When you’re ticking boxes for a full-time player, he’s got that frame, he’s strong, his knowledge of the game is great, he runs a really good line, he’s got a good catch-and-pass, defensively he’s really sound.
“His big challenge now is decision-making. Sometimes at Batley last season, he’d make an offload when it wasn’t particularly on at that time.
“He’s now playing and training with full-time players, and he doesn’t look out of place. He looks great with people around him.
“I’m pretty excited to see what he can do this year. With a run of games, I think he could be a really good addition.”
A first Super League pre-season has been and gone and while a foot injury saw him miss the Tigers’ opener against Wigan, Hodson hopes that run of games comes soon.
“I’ve been looking forward to (playing) since I got here. Hopefully I’ll take my opportunity when I get it,” he says.
“It’s been a really good competition for the centre spots. I’m learning more every week and just trying to improve, to get myself to the point where Linners thinks I’m able to play.”
Hodson is one of many arrivals at Castleford for 2024 with limited or no top-level experience, as the club bid to rebuild after the shock of a relegation battle, only narrowly survived, last year.
Like many, he has something to prove – not least that there is rugby league talent to be found in all corners of the country.
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 494 (March 2024)
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