Ben Cockayne

Ben Cockayne

Personal information
Born	(1983-07-20) 20 July 1983 Pontefract, Yorkshire, England
Playing information
Position	Fullback, Wing
Club
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
2004	Hunslet	2	0	0	0	0
2006	Doncaster	22	17	6	0	80
2006–11	Hull Kingston Rovers	138	57	2	0	232
2012–13	Wakefield Trinity	45	27	1	0	110
2014–	Hull Kingston Rovers	13	2	0	0	8
	Total	220	103	9	0	430
Source: RLP

Ben Cockayne (born 20 July 1983 in Pontefract, England) is an English rugby league player. He plays for Hull Kingston Rovers in the Super League. He is also an assistant coach at his former amateur club, Normanton Knights.

Career

Ben started his Rugby League career with his local amateur club Normanton Knights. He had some trials with Super League sides such as Wakefield Trinity and Castleford. He was then given a chance to play for Doncaster in National League 1 on a trial basis by St. John Ellis who was then the coach of Doncaster.

After impressing for Doncaster, especially against Hull KR in 2005 at Craven Park, Cockayne signed for Hull Kingston Rovers whilst they were in National League One. During the 2006 season, Cockayne was a first team regular in the squad, playing 29 games and helping his side to promotion by scoring 27 tries. He came second in the ranks for top try-scorer for Hull KR in 2006, and was Man-of-the-Match in the Robins' memorable game that saw them be promoted to Super League.

In the 2006 season, Hull Kingston Rovers won the Rugby League National League One competition and were promoted to the Super League competition for the 2007 season.

Hull Kingston Rovers played their opening Super League match on 10 February 2007 against Wakefield Trinity. The scores were level at eight-all when Jamie Rooney converted a drop goal in the final ten minutes of the match to give Trinity the lead by just one point. In the dying stages of the match, James Webster looked like he was going to attempt a drop goal but due to the pressure put onto him by the Wakefield defence, he passed the ball to Chris Chester. Chester then slipped the ball inside to Cockayne who ran through to score a try. There was no time left for Wakefield and on the opening game of the season Cockayne had scored a try that gave the Hull Kingston Rovers a fourteen to nine victory on their Super League début. He scored another try in Rovers' second match, a 17–10 away win at Huddersfield, and bolstered a sterling defensive display in Rovers' shock 26–16 away win at Wigan which made them joint top of the Super League.

In the 2014 season, Ben Cockayne transferred to Hull KR, where he replaced Eden as KR's regular Full Back. Regarded by many as a terrace hero during his first stint at Hull Kingston Rovers, he has become a fan favourite once again due to his current form during his second stint.^[1]

Facebook

In April 2011, Ben Cockayne allegedly posted the racist remark "p*** c***" on his friend's Facebook Wall. It is thought the Hull KR fullback wrote on a friends profile page: "u owe me a quid an the p*** c*** that has got my wallet in his car owes me about 100". It is believed Cockayne was referring to a wallet which he had lost in a taxi. But 53 minutes later Cockayne, who was given a 12-month suspended sentence in 2009 for an assault, wrote on Facebook: "Found it :) thank f***". Cockayne's Facebook profile was removed within hours of the Mirror newspaper contacting his club and the Rugby Football League. A Hull KR spokesman said: "The club will be carrying out a full internal investigation into comments allegedly made on a website by Ben Cockayne. Nobody will be commenting further until that has concluded." The Rugby Football League, which has a Kick Racism into Touch campaign, said: "We will be speaking to Hull KR about a potential social media matter." ^[2]

Moving on from the 2011 Co-operative Champions

Ben Cockayne signed for Wakefield Trinity for the 2012 season, his hometown club after winning the League Leader's Shield and the Championship Grand Final in 2011 with Featherstone Rovers. On 4 July 2013. Wakefield Trinity rejected a bid from Cockayne's former club Hull KR.^[3]

Super League tries

Scores and results list Ben's try tally first.^[4]

References

External links

• Official Player Profile