Leeds Rhinos Foundation are supporting our partner organisation Black Health Initiative Leeds to promote the campaign ‘Cancer does not discriminate’ during Black History Month.
To raise awareness particularly of Prostate cancer within the Black Minority Ethnic communities of Leeds we will be releasing articles throughout October which celebrate the diversity of Leeds based rugby players from past to present.
Our second article taken from the 'Leeds Rugby League Football Club 100 Greats' by Phil Caplan & Peter Smith discusses a superb motivator and man-manager, Roy Francis who was widely acknowledged as the greatest coach and thinker in the sport in the modern era.
Roy Francis was a fine rugby league player but as a coach he was a revolutionary. The proud Welshman from Brynmawr played just over 350 first class games, predominantly as a free-scoring winger, enjoying great success with four out of the five clubs he served. His only false dawn was at Wigan, the side who tempted him north in November 1936 but released him three years later, after a dozen games in which he crossed the whitewash nine times.
He entered the wartime competition with Barrow, but it was while guesting for Eddie Waring’s Dewsbury that he won the bulk of his domestic honours. He scored tries in three consecutive Championship finals, as the men from Crown Flatt defeated Bradford and Halifax but lost out to Wigan in 1944. Added to that, he registered the only two touchdowns of the Yorkshire Cup final of 1942, which brought him further glory.
International recognition followed post-war, with 5 caps for Wales and a sole Great Britain appearance, in the deciding third Test against the touring Kiwis in 1947. His brace of tries instrumental in a 25-9 win in front of 42,500 delirious fans at Odsal. His next stop was Wilderspool and another appearance and try in a Championship final, as Warrington were just edged out by Huddersfield in front of a huge crowd at Maine Road, Manchester.
The perfect foil for the code’s most prolific winger, Brian Bevan, he maintained his near try-a-game average there before accepting the job of player-coach at Hull and finding his true metier. Always one to identify and play to strengths, he built a formidable team at the Boulevard, based around a magnificent pack primed to new levels of fitness. Nine finals in as many years, although seven ended in heart-wrenching defeat, represented a golden age for the club, his sides playing with incredible consistency.
An offer to take charge at a declining Leeds was a challenge he could not resist and although the work ethic was the same, the resources available and style adopted were complete opposites. Intent on grooming quality youngsters and the crop available to him was as good as at any time in Headingley history. He was passionately committed to a style of open football that exemplified the ethos of defence through attack. It took three mediocre seasons for charges such as Syd Hynes, Mick Shoebottom, Barry Seabourne and Ray Batten to blossom, augmented by some astute signings to give the squad balance and experience. Men like Harry Poole, Allen Lockwood, Mick Clark and Bev Risman enjoyed a rejuvenated lease of life under his tutelage and when the sum of the parts became the whole, the results were devastating.
Whereas Hull had been a nearly team, the Loiners swept all before them, playing a magnificent brand of flowing football made for the new limited tackle rule that was built around keeping the ball alive and the game entertaining. The culmination came in the 1967/68 season, with a second consecutive League Leaders’ Trophy aided by a cub record equalling 18 match unbeaten run, the Yorkshire League Championship and the Challenge Cup, won in the most dramatic of waterlogged circumstances at Wembley.
His most memorable moment as a coach come in the semi-final when Wigan were trounced at Station Road, as his vision of ‘total football’ reached its Zenith. He said of the performance, “Our last try crystallised everything I’d striven for, perfection on a football field. Barry Seabourne scored from around half-way with five colleagues in support and not an opponent in sight”. Lured to Australia straight afterwards, he dramatically improved the displays of North Sydney and was feted by his peers for his vision and innovation without ever really settling in the country. Second spell back at Headingley saw his side add the inaugural Premiership to his list of achievements in 1974/75, before he moved on to spend a couple of seasons rebuilding the fortunes of Bradford Northern. Those who flourished under his guidance and revelled in the freedom and unorthodoxy of his approach spoke reverentially of his influence. For Alan Smith, ‘Francis’ training methods were awesome, far in advance of any other team in the country, and stood everyone in good stead. But Roy was much more than that he was a psychologist, an expert, who moulded his own perfect team.
Perhaps the most prodigious talent he unearthed and inspired was John Holmes. ‘He’d train his players very hard and then buy you the first pint after the game. He nurtured a fabulous back division which swept Leeds to trophy in some style.’