Bishop: League’s Star Attraction

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31659, 20 April 1968, Page 15

Bishop: League’s Star Attraction

(By Our Rugby League Reporter) The British scrumhalf, T. Bishop, regarded as the greatest draw-card in international Rugby league, ; has the personality | and the ability to be [ the outstanding per- | sonality of the 1968 world championship series in Australia and New Zealand. Two years ago Bishop was virtually unknown, and Australian and New Zealand spectators were understandably disappointed that the brilliant A. J. Murphy, selected as a centre, had withdrawn from the 1966 tour because Bishop and C. Dooler had been preferred to him as the tour scrum-halves. It took Bishop only a few matches to lift his rating from

a nonentity to the tourists’ star attraction. It was not so much his irresistable runs from the base of the scrums, nor his fine duels with W. J. Smith in the tests; Bishop had given the spectators acts of i showmanship seldom, if ever. | seen on a Rugby league field I before. I It was no trouble to the I little St Helens player to adi minister a swift kick in the rear to anyone who displeased him during a game, regardless of whose side that player was on. Then, having enraged the opposing forwards, Bishop would retreat equally swiftly behind his own pack. These incidents seldom caused any injury, but they disrupted the opposition and persuaded the Australians to concentrate more on finding Bishop than scoring tries. And Bishop proved a very difficult fellow to find when the likes of N. R. Kelly, J. W. Raper, A. Beetson or J. Whittenberg were looking for him. The tour culminated with Bishop’s suspension from playing in New South Wales. This followed an incident involving Bishop and a touch judge, Mr R. Morris, when Balmain beat Britain. This ban, fortunately, was raised to allow Bishop to play in the series. Writing in the Sydney "Sun," Kelly, no stranger himself to an early shower after ungentlemanly conduct, said [ that Bishop was “Britain’s best I player in the series in EngHand last year. I admire him ' tremendously as a footballer.”

However, Kelly charged Bishop and his own reputation with his dismissal in the third test. “Bishop came racing through after one of his short kicks. Then he saw me, fell to the ground and started screaming that I had stiffarmed him. Before I had reached the side-line Bishop was up again and running around like a fly in a bottle ” , “Tiny Tom’s” reputation increased during that series, partially because of his association with Roger (“the artful dodger”) Millward, another player of lilliputian stature and a stand-off half of the highest class. Together they ducked and dived through the bemused Australian defences, and Bishop added another string to his bow by opening the scoring in two of the tests with fine field goals. The Bishop-Millward-N. Fox inside back combination in the world series team will give the appearance of a Goliath playing outside two Davids, for Fox has exceeded 15-stone during his disrupted test career. The hero of three Wakefield Trinity Challenge Cup successes at Wembley within I four seasons, Fox has been criticised for being too slow land lumbering when matched I with the likes of R. W. Gas•nier (Australia), but his 'Scoring potential is fantastic. ■ To win the captaincy of the I British team, Fox had to I overcome the disappointments I of losing his test place

against the 1965 Kiwis, in the third test against the 1963 Australians, the 1960 World Cup series and the 1966 tour to New Zealand and Australia. It seems remarkable that a player who has scored 3952 points (1574 goals, 268 tries) in 471 first-class games should still feel, at 28, that he has to prove himself. The performances of the 1959 British Rugby Union Lion, A. B. W. Risman, will be watched with interest. Risman played brilliantly as a stand-off half on that tour and became one of the New Zealand Rugby Almanack’s “five players of the year.” It took Risman eight years, a transfer from Leigh to Leeds and a move to fullback, before he succeeded in the professional code. The son of a former British Rugby league captain, Risman assured himself of a tour with two tries and five goals in Britain’s recent 22-13 win over France. The sft sin hooker, P. J. Flanagan, will ensure that the British pack does not lack a personality. By bis size and habitual use of headgear, Flanagan is easily noticed amongst the larger lumps in the tight play, and his darting runs from dummy half earned him his niek-name of “Flash.” In contrast, the French [team is little known in this country, only three of the [players having toured in

1964. The high-scoring wing, D. Pellerin, might develop into a leading personality, for he will have the experienced centres, J. P. Lecompte and R. Gruppi, to give him the opportunities. French touring teams, notoriously inconsistent and even lazy in he lesser matches, have never failed to produce highly unorthodox and attractive players. It would not surprise if the 1968 team produced a PuigAubert, a Brousse, a Dop or a Mantoulan before the series finished with the grand final in Sydney on June 10.