Black South African Players: Green Vigo is alive and well and living in Britain

[Usera]

An interesting piece on black South African players.

'Between the Springbok and Ikhamanga

[Chronicler of Chiswick]

Thanks for that - great player, glad to see he's still around.

[Futtocks]

Fascinating stuff - many thanks for posting the link.

[Stan Doffarf]

Enjoyed that. Interesting that Bradford and Leeds were both heavily involved with the introduction of SA players during that time. Unfortunately, as the article mentions, Bradford were in desperate straits at the time, so those lads probably never got the rewards and exposure they deserved.

I remember some of those players very well, Abed was a decent goal kicker and also played Bradford League cricket, Haase didn't seem to be with us all that long. I saw Rosenberg a few times, he played for Leeds in the 1961 Championship Final at Odsal (my dad worked on the gate and I got in for nowt).

Another South African who played for us around 64-65 was Mick Brown, decent full back or wing. I wonder what happened to him? I recall he got injured the week before the 65 Yorkshire Cup Final and Jack Scattergood took his place for Northern's memorable final win.

Good memories.

[Bitofaboogie]

Thanks for that - great player, glad to see he's still around.

Had Vigo signed for Wigan 10-15 years later then we would have been talking about him in the same breath as Boston, Offiah, Bevan and Van Vollenhoven. A truly great winger who just came along at the wrong time in the history of Wigan Rugby League Club and the game in general.