England Schools v France Schools 1981

[JonM]

Team line-ups from the programme for the England v France Schools international (under-16s) played at Widnes on Friday April 10th 1981.

Not a bad looking England line up - Shaun Wane, Gary Schofield, Deryck Fox, David Creasser, Andy Dannatt, Mark Forster and others. In the England Pen Pictures section, Shaun Wane says his ambition is to find a job. 

Interesting to see a few lads from Paris in the French team (and on the opposite page, details of the Widnes under-11s team travelling to play games against Middlesex and Surrey under-11s). 

[Number 16]

I always find it fairly dispiriting looking at old age group representative line-ups. 

There always seem to be too many players who are lost to the sport. For every known player in this squad I'll guess that there are two whose names are now forgotten. 

Did they desert the sport? 

 

[JonM]

Nearly all of this team ended up as pro players and more than half played for England or GB as full internationals.

One thing I noticed was that the two players who expressed an ambition to do A levels and university were names I didn't recognise - which suggests they did do that and didn't become pro players. (Bit of googling says one one of the two taught PE and is a cycling coach in Halifax).

[Guest]

Whatever became of the players in the Middlesex and Surrey U11's?

Probably captains of industry by now and hate RL due to the salary cap. (I bet)

[Adelaide Tiger]

On a similar note does anyone have the squad for the 1983 BARLA under 19 tour to New Zealand?