| Personal information | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Garry E. Schofield | |||||
| Born | 1 July 1965 Belle Isle, Leeds, England |
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| Playing information | ||||||
| Position | Centre, Stand-off/Five-eighth | |||||
| Club | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| 1983–87 | Hull | 122 | 107 | 199 | 2 | 824 |
| 1985–87 | Balmain Tigers | 46 | 28 | 9 | 4 | 84 |
| 1987–96 | Leeds Rhinos | |||||
| 1989 | Western Suburbs | 9 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 23 |
| 1998 | Huddersfield Giants | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 179 | 140 | 209 | 7 | 931 | |
| Representative | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| 1984–95 | England | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 1984–94 | Great Britain | 46 | 31 | 9 | 7 | 149 |
| Coaching information | ||||||
| Club | ||||||
| Years | Team | Gms | W | D | L | W% |
| 1998 | Huddersfield Giants | 13 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 15 |
| Source: RLP England RL Stats | ||||||
Garry E. Schofield OBE (born 1 July 1965 in Hunslet, Leeds) is an English retired professional rugby league footballer of the 1980s and 1990s. At the time of his retirement he was the most-capped Great Britain player of all time along with Mick Sullivan, with 46 appearances. He also won three England caps, making him the highest capped player in total from the British Isles. He won the 1990 Rugby League World Golden Boot Award as the greatest player on the planet, largely due to his exceptional performances in Great Britain's backs-against-the-wall Test-series win in New Zealand and his remarkable display as Great Britain beat Australia at Wembley 19–12. The award to Schofield was made retrospectively in 2011 by Rugby League World magazine. Schofield has since coached Barrow Raiders in Rugby League's Championship. He is also a regular columnist for the monthly Rugby League World magazine and is employed as a business consultant for corporate communications giants, Wish Communications.
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During his début season Schofield was first selected to represent Great Britain against France in February 1984. He went on to be the 1983–84 Rugby Football League season's top try-scorer. After that he was selected as an 18-year-old to go on the 1984 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia.
Schofield played for Hull in the 1985 Challenge Cup final against Wigan. Also in 1985, he re-wrote the record books by scoring four tries for Great Britain as they beat New Zealand in the second Test series at Central Park, Wigan. The series ended 1–1, with the third game drawn.
Moving to Sydney, Schofield spent the 1986 NSWRL season with the Balmain Tigers club and gained the rare distinction for a British footballer of becoming the season's top try-scorer.
Schofield moved from Hull to his home town club Leeds in 1987 for a world record fee of ₤187,000. In 1988 Schofield was named the costliest player in world rugby league.[1] In 1990, as vice-captain, he was outstanding in Great Britain's series triumph in New Zealand and then in the victory over Australia at Wembley.
In 1991 Schofield won the Man of Steel Award for player of the season.
He experienced possibly his finest hour when captaining the 1992 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand with a magnificent 33–10 win over Australia in Melbourne, Schofield a clear choice as man of the match. But the Ashes were once again lost by two games to one and later that year, with Schofield as captain again, Great Britain were pipped at the end of the World Cup Final against Australia in front of a world-record Test crowd at Wembley by a late Steve Renouf try.
A year later, Schofield captained Great Britain to a superb 3–0 series whitewash over New Zealand before ending his Test career with two appearances in the 1994 Ashes series. He controversially missed out on selection for England's 1995 World Cup squad. But he did enough in the Test arena to win the respect of the usually hard-to-please Australians. When asked in 2010 by Rugby League World who was the best British player he faced, the Australian legend Brett Kenny replied, "Garry Schofield – he was a great player and a real thorn in the side of anyone he came across. He could score tries from nothing when he was a young centre and then he went on to become a very good stand-off and a very good leader."
Schofield finally left Leeds in 1996, joining Huddersfield for a six-figure sum. After helping the Giants into Super League, he took over the coaching reins but was dismissed after 13 games, having picked up two wins. He later successfully sued the club for unfair dismissal. Interestingly, it took Huddersfield's next three coaches – Mal Reilly, John Kear and Tony Smith – more than 13 games to register two wins, with the club so far off the pace in their early Super League years. It was only after relegation and promotion under Smith that they became competitive.
Schofield is currently assisting the South Africans with their efforts to qualify for the 2013 World Cup after impressing their management with his coaching of the British Amateur Rugby League Association Young Lions (Under 19s) in May & June 2010. He led the Lions to five wins from five. Later in the year he was appointed to coach high-flying, big-spending Barrow Raiders in the Championship, although he was fired after only 5 games due to his inepititude in the position.
Schofield is also a high-profile media pundit. In March 2001, Schofield's Autobiography, Tries the Limit was published.
Arriva Yorkshire honoured 13 rugby league footballers on Thursday 20 August 2009, at a ceremony at The Jungle, the home of the Castleford Tigers. A fleet of new buses were named after the 'Arriva Yorkshire Rugby League Dream Team'. Members of the public nominated the best ever rugby league footballers to have played in West Yorkshire, supported by local rugby league journalists; James Deighton from BBC Leeds, and Tim Butcher, editor of Rugby League World. The 'Arriva Yorkshire Rugby League Dream Team' included Schofield.[2]
In 2011, Schofield was awarded the Rugby League World Golden Boot retrospectively for the 1990 season in which he was adjudged to have been the world's best rugby league player.
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