Bobbie Goulding (born 4 February 1972 in Widnes, Lancashire) is an English rugby league football coach and former player. A former Great Britain and England international representative scrum-half, Goulding played for a number of clubs including Wigan and St. Helens, both of whom he won Challenge Cup finals with.
Playing career
Goulding played for St. Helens in the Rugby League Premiership and the Super League. He also played for Wigan, Leeds, Widnes, Huddersfield, Wakefield Trinity, Salford, Leigh, Rochdale Hornets and Australian side Eastern Suburbs. As a player he most famously captained St Helens in their double year of 1996.
Goulding's usual position was as at scrum-half. In 1990 he became the youngest ever Great Britain Lions tourist at 18 years of age.
Goulding represented England at the 1995 Rugby League World Cup. He was selected to play for England in the 1995 World Cup final at scrum half back but Australia won the match and retained the Cup.
He once kicked 11 goals in a Super League match for St Helens.[1]
Goulding captained St Helens at scrum half in the 1996 Challenge Cup Final, kicking four conversions and helping his team to a 40–32 victory over Bradford.[2]
He set the record as the highest points scorer in one game for Great Britain – 32 points V Fiji in 1996. At the end of Super League's first season, Goulding was named at scrum half back in the 1996 Super League Dream Team. He was the 1996 Great Britain Lions tour's top point scorer.
In the 1997 post season, Goulding was selected to play for Great Britain at scrum half back in all three matches of the Super League Test series against Australia.
On 1 June 2014 Goulding came out of playing retirement (after a 9 yr break) to play in for Barrow Raiders in their championship fixture against fellow championship strugglers Rochdale Hornets. Goulding played with number 3+4 on his back, because the number 7 squad number was taken by raiders Liam Campbell. Goulding helped the team to only their 2nd victory at that point all season and lifted Barrow Raiders off the bottom of the table. He continued to play in the next 2 fixtures against Dewsbury Rams and Leigh Centurians.
[3] See citation for full match report and video highlights of the game.
Coaching career
He joined Rochdale Hornets initially as player-coach, and his playing career ended in 2005 after a biceps injury. He left his post at Rochdale in November 2005, citing frustration at the club's financial problems. During his two seasons in charge at the National League One club he had not had a proper contract, despite impressing and twice being nominated for coach of the year.
He rejoined Rochdale as a coach in September 2007[4] before departing again in May 2008.[5]
On 28 February 2009 Goulding was named the coach of the French National team.[6]
On 31 March 2014 Bobby took charge as head coach of Championship side Barrow Raiders with the club routed to the bottom of the league. His job is to try and keep Barrow out of the bottom 5 relegation places as the leagues are being restructured in 2015.
Financial crisis at Wakefield Trinity
In 2000, at the height of a financial crisis at Wakefield Trinity, the contracts of all players aged over 24 were terminated during September 2000. The players affected were; Andy Fisher, Bobbie Goulding, Warren Jowitt, Tony Kemp (player-coach), Steve McNamara, Francis Maloney, Martin Masella, Steve Prescott, Bright Sodje, Francis Stephenson and Glen Tomlinson.[7]
References
External links
St Helens RLFC squad – 1997 Challenge Cup Final winners |
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