Just been doing an RL quiz to stem the boredom and a question about this guy popped up.

What a fall from grace - All Blacks to Leeds to Salford then to Keighley Cougars (no disrespect to them) in the old Third Division, all in the space of five years!

Who was the biggest waste of money though? Him or John Gallagher?

I always liked him as a player, a wholehearted effort guaranteed every time he put on the jersey it seemed - which was somewhat of a rarity amongst Leeds squads of that era.

He had plenty of faults but, I'd go along with that.

I always thought he was ok, put in plenty of effort.

Still feel a bit sorry for Gallagher, seemingly ostracised by Schofield and his Town Hall Tavern drinking cronies.



Whats Gallagher doing nowadays ? a damn sight better than Schofield I would imagine

Rugby and PE teacher at Uppingham school I believe. Calls himself Mr Gallagher and turns out some great rugby players.

Has he moved on - I know he was Director of Sport at Colfe's at one point?

Out of the two, Brooke Cowden was definately the worst. I can't recall ever seeing him brak a tackle.

I think you may be right on that one Andy.

The only mystery bigger than how Brooke-Cowden ended up at Leeds is how he ever got a place with 'All Blacks.'

The clue is in the name..I would also check which school he attended...

Only worked that way in England. He as an open side I think in Union, so I suspect he was very skilled at that part of the game. I read an interview with him and his height was the main issue in Union. At 5'10" he was too short for a back row in the 1980's. Lifting was banned then and lineouts were actually a contest (a fairly shambolic one at times). If he'd played now it wouldn't have mattered how tall he was.



I don't really remember too many of his performances, even though I saw quite a lot of them. I guess that sums up his Leeds career.

I have never heard confirmation of this, but heard a rumour at the time that we signed the wrong player. The player we were actually after was someone with a name like Zim Zam Brookes. If the rumour was true god knows what happened.

Mark BC was a very average player, but he did want to play for Leeds and never could be accused of lacking in effort or commitment. Something that cannot be said for a lot of the team at that time.