Les Boyd
Personal information | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Full name | Lesley William Boyd[1] | |||||
Born | 1955 (approx) Nyngan, New South Wales | |||||
Playing information | ||||||
Position | Second-row, Prop, Lock | |||||
Club | ||||||
Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
1976–79 | Western Suburbs | 68 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 72 |
1980–84 | Manly-Warringah | 75 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 45 |
1985–89 | Warrington | 86 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 80 |
Total | 229 | 58 | 0 | 0 | 197 | |
Representative | ||||||
Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
1978–82 | Australia | 17 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
1979–83 | New South Wales | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Source: NRL Stats |
Les Boyd (born in Nyngan, New South Wales) is an Australian former rugby league footballer of the 1970s and 80s. He played representative football for the Australian national side in international matches as well as the New South Wales side in the State of Origin. Boyd played club football in both Australia and England and his usual position was in the second row.
Career
Australia
While attending Nyngan High School, Boyd played for the Australian Schoolboys team in 1972.[2] From 1976 to 1984 Boyd played in the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership for the Western Suburbs Magpies, then the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles. He was selected to go on the 1978 Kangaroo tour. In 1980, he successfully sued Mirror Newspapers Ltd for publishing an article that stated he was 'fat, slow and predictable'.[3]
In 1982, Boyd made his second Kangaroo Tour when he was part of the undefeated 1982 Kangaroos side who became known as "The Invincibles". Despite normally being a second row forward, he played all three tests against Great Britain in the front row, scoring a try in the first test at Boothferry Park in Hull. The hard running forward was sent off in the first half of the second test at Central Park in Wigan by French referee Julian Rascagneres for kicking Lions Hooker John Dalgreen. In fairness to Rascagneres, he had called a penalty against Boyd for a flop in the tackle and was looking back down field. This caused him to miss Dalgreen (who was on his back on the ground) lashing out at Boyd with his boot, kicking him in the shin as television replays clearly showed (the English based touch judge also missed the initial kick, only seeing Boyd's retaliation). BBC commentator Ray French called it a "vicious kick", though it appeared he had also missed Dalgreen's action. Boyd's send-off didn't affect the Kangaroos though. Leading 15-4 at the time, they powered on to win the match 27-6 and along with it, The Ashes.
Boyd's volatile nature while on the field (which was in total contrast to his quiet off-field nature) also saw him sent to the sin-bin at the start of the second half of the third and last Ashes series test at Headingley after a fight which had broken out at the end of the first half.
Boyd then reverted to his usual second row for the test against France in Narbonne, the last match on the tour.
While playing for New South Wales in the opening game of the 1983 State of Origin series at Brisbane's Lang Park, Boyd broke the jaw of Queensland forward Daryl Brohman with his elbow[4][5] and was later suspended for 12 months (rumors at the time stated that had Brohman's jaw not been broken, he was in line to make his test debut for Australia in the 1983 test series against New Zealand. He would never again get that opportunity). Brohman went on to take Boyd to court over the incident, with the matter being settled out of court.
In 1984 while playing for Manly, Boyd was again suspended, this time for a record-equalling 15 months for eye-gouging of Canterbury hooker Billy Johnstone.
England
Boyd played out the rest of his career in England with Warrington. He helped them to victory in 1986's Rugby League Premiership Final and won the Harry Sunderland Trophy for his man-of-the-match performance. He played another three seasons with Warrington before retiring.
Honors
In 2000 Boyd was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his contribution to Australia's international standing in rugby league. Further honours came in September 2004 when he was named at lock in the Western Suburbs Magpies team of the century.[6]
Personal Life
Les Boyd currently works as a rep in the Riverina region of south western New South Wales for Lion Nathan.
References
- ↑ Moore, Andrew (2001). The best ever Australian Sports Writing. Australia: Black Inc. p. 367. ISBN 1-86395-266-7. Retrieved 19 February 2011.
- ↑ "SportingPulse Homepage for Australian Secondary Schools Rugby League". SportingPulse. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
- ↑ Healey, Deborah (2005). Sport and the law. UNSW Press. p. 77. ISBN 0-86840-643-0, 9780868406435 Check
|isbn=
value (help). - ↑ Gallaway, Jack (2003). Origin: Rugby league's greatest contest 1980 - 2002. University of Queensland Press. p. 41. ISBN 0-7022-3383-8, 9780702233838 Check
|isbn=
value (help). - ↑ Boyd breaks Brohman's Jaw - 1983 SoO
- ↑ westsmagpies.net (2008). "Western Suburbs Team of the Century". Wests Archives. Western Suburbs Magpies R.L.F.C. Retrieved 2009-11-28.
External links
- Les Boyd at yesterdayshero.com.au
- Les Boyd at eraofthebiff.com
- Les Boyd at nrlstats.com
- Les Boyd stats at rugbyleagueproject.com
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