A Hensingham amateur who turned professional because he and his wife needed to buy a pram, Kyle Amor went on to win four Super League Grand Finals and a Challenge Cup with St Helens.
He represented Ireland in the 2017 World Cup, qualifying through his grandfather, who left Tipperary to be a foreman when the multi-storey car park in Whitehaven was being built.
Amor is now a regular on our screens with the BBC, Channel 4, Sky Sports and Premier Sports. His testimonial match between Cumbria and Wales takes place in Whitehaven on 13 October.
If you could relive one day from your career, which would it be?
Wembley in 2021 when we beat Castleford. Scoring in a Challenge Cup Final and bringing the cup back to St Helens after 13 years was pretty special. Scoring the try was massive. After losing in 2019, I knew it was my last chance to win it.
How did you get into Rugby League?
I played under-9s and -11s but went away from the game. I later got a job in a printing factory and worked with a really good amateur player called Craig McAvoy, who persuaded me to go along to Hensingham with him. My first game was on the wing for the second team at Egremont one night. I was pushed to centre then into the forwards. The enjoyment was being accepted by this group of men. I loved the social aspect of the game. Before long, I was playing Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and I played all year round for about four years. I couldn’t get enough of it. I played open age for BARLA in France against Morocco when I was 17 or 18. Then we played in Russia in 2008. That was an eye opener. We had three days in Moscow then a 14-hour train journey to Kazan.
Tell us about your trial at Wigan.
I got a month’s trial, going down on the train and staying with Shaun Wane. I thought I was doing well, but when I got the train one day for a game, I got a call to say they didn’t want me. I think it was down to Brian Noble. I got myself four cans at Carlisle station and went home.
Why did you turn pro with Whitehaven?
I was told I was definitely going to Fiji, Samoa and Australia on the 2009 BARLA tour, but my girlfriend fell pregnant with my daughter. Workington and Whitehaven wanted to sign me, and Stephen Holgate took me to Whitehaven. They offered me £350 per month plus winning and losing pay. They had a decent side, always in the top four or five. My wife wanted a pram that cost about £1,000. We couldn’t afford it, but I knew if I signed and just did a pre-season, I could get the pram!
What was it like to be coached by Ged Stokes?
Brilliant! He was wonderful. We went to York in the Northern Rail Cup. Four of them scragged me onto the speedway track around the pitch, and I had to wash gravel out of my eye. Even so, Ged believed in me and turned me into a frontrower. I didn’t really understand how to play the game, but I was really fit and wanted to carry the ball. Ben did a nice write-up for my testimonial brochure recently.
How did your Leeds move come about?
Championship games were on Sky back then. I’d won a player-of-the-month award and the phone started going. Terry O’Connor always tells me my career was all down to him for talking me up! I got a phone call from Huddersfield’s Nathan Brown when I was on a nightshift. I put the phone down and wanted to tell someone, but I didn’t want word to get out. Then Leeds came in. My wife said if wanted to do it, we’d do it, even though we had to take a pay cut because she had to leave Sellafield. I listened to both clubs, but I thought if it didn’t work out at Huddersfield, I probably wouldn’t get another Super League club, but if it didn’t work at Leeds, I would, and that’s what happened.
Why did you play only three games for Leeds?
I was raw and I needed coaching, but I didn’t really get that. If Brian McDermott respected you, you were in. If not, you were out. He didn’t take me on. I had imposters’ syndrome. I didn’t believe I belonged in Super League because only 16 months earlier, I’d been playing for Hensingham and looking for dogshit on the pitch before the game.
You played for Wakefield between 2011 and 2013. Do you remember the club winning a Super League licence in that first year?
We were all in the flats behind the sticks, watching it on the news. When it got announced, we were buzzing because we all knew we had a job for the next three years.
When the game dispensed with licensing, it switched to the Super Eights. What did you think of that?
I like how it’s always been with play-offs. The more we keep messing around with the game, the more we lose people. I’d like 16 teams locked in for three years, giving them a chance to work under IMG’s recommendations. The game is running on thin ice. It’ll always survive but are we an elite competition or are we going to keep paddling?
How did your move to Saints come about?
Nathan Brown phoned out of the blue again, and I couldn’t turn him down again! I was so excited. I was surrounded by big names, but I was more confident that I was being brought into play. I wasn’t an experiment like I had been at Leeds. I’d held my own at Wakefield. I was at Saints on merit. I was 26 and ready for the big games.
Talk us through the first minute of the 2014 Grand Final.
We kicked off to Dom Crosby. Me and Sia Soliola hit him with a huge tackle which set the tone for the game. They got through the set, kicked it and then Ben Flower completely lost his head. It’s there for everybody to see. When the red card went up, I knew surely we’d win, but we still had a very patched-up side and when Lance Hohaia went off, we had Mark Flanagan and Paul Wellens in the halves – neither in their natural position. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook played centre. We were probably one of the worst teams to win it when you look at our team and the players playing out of position.
How was Lance afterwards?
Lance was pretty dejected but, as awful as this sounds, we were caught up in doing something so special. He didn’t join the team in the celebrations, and it was the end of his career. He left and never came back.
Why didn’t things work out for Keiron Cunningham as coach?
We’d lost Manu, Soliola, Hohaia and a few others and we didn’t replace them with the same quality. The coaching job might have come too early for him. The club demands trophies and a certain style, but maybe his philosophy didn’t match up to that. We made semi-finals, but the club wanted a little bit more. Perhaps the club let Keiron down. He always protected the players. The great teams he played for had been player driven. I wanted him to lose his shit with the lads in the dressing room, although he never did. But I have so much respect for him, and he was great for me.
What did Justin Holbrook change when he took over in 2017?
Everything. We needed Justin at that time, big style. There was a period when we weren’t as professional as we should have been. He fizzled out those players and made us adhere to standards that are still there now. He created an environment that was fun but so physically demanding. If you weren’t willing to be as fit or to put the team first, you were shown the door. It was all based on effort, which requires the right mindset. He drove it into players. His coaching sessions were upbeat and challenging. We finished top by a record margin in 2019. We were blowing teams away under Holbrook. It was the only time in my career I could look around the changing room, knowing we were going to win, and we went into the Grand Final knowing we wouldn’t lose against Salford.
How do you look back at the 2017 World Cup?
It was awesome! We knew we weren’t going to win it, so we thought we might as well enjoy it. We trained and drank until a couple of days before a game then we went again. We worked hard and nearly beat Papua New Guinea, but Louie didn’t quite dot the ball down, and they scored a late try. That World Cup is one of the best things I’ve ever done.
How did you initially deal with the pandemic?
We played the last game in any sport, and we got beaten by Castleford. We were two from six at that point and I believe Kristian Woolf was close to being sacked. The fans weren’t with him. You don’t get much from him anyway, but he didn’t quite understand the British mentality. He came in with a hard-nosed approach that rubbed the players up the wrong way. I think lockdown saved him. He realised what the players were about in that time because we trained every day and got ourselves so fit. We blew Catalans away in the first game back at Headingley. They didn’t know what had hit them, and we carried it on for two years.
James Graham returned to the club in 2020. What was he like to play with?
I got on really well with Jammer and to win the Grand Final in that style with him was brilliant. We were off the field when Jack Welsby scored. Jammer didn’t believe it was going to count and was telling everyone to calm down, but then it gets given and we’re all running on the field. Nothing like that will never happen again.
You finished your career with stints at Warrington and Widnes.
I’d realised the writing was on the wall for me at Saints and my media career was taking off. I’m glad I went to Warrington, but they thought they were working hard, and they were miles off where they needed to be. I could see the difference with Saints straightaway. I didn’t enjoy Widnes either, to be honest.
How did you get into media work?
I did Radio Yorkshire with James Deighton and Richard Stead when I played for Wakefield and I used to come out feeling great. Once I started to study the game, I became a huge nerd. I just want to champion the players. I don’t like the negativity in the game and I don’t understand it. We need to talk about the game in a good light. Any time any media needed doing, I’d always say yes. A lot of players think they can just rock up and pick up a mic, but a lot of work has to go into it. I started to enjoy it more than playing. Hopefully, I’m a part of it for a while to come. It gives me energy and you should always do things that give you energy!
