Joe Lydon (rugby)
| Personal information | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Joseph Paul Lydon | |||||
| Born | 26 November 1963 | |||||
| Playing information | ||||||
| Position | Fullback, Wing, Centre | |||||
| Club | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| 1982–86 | Widnes | |||||
| 1986–94 | Wigan | 262 | 89 | 283 | 16 | 938 |
| 1987 | Eastern Suburbs | 12 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 34 |
| 1989 | Eastern Suburbs | 10 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 26 |
| Total | 284 | 97 | 297 | 16 | 998 | |
| Representative | ||||||
| Years | Team | Pld | T | G | FG | P |
| 1983–92 | Great Britain | 30 | 7 | 26 | 0 | 80 |
| 1985–88 | Lancashire | 3 | ||||
| Source: | ||||||
Joseph Paul Lydon (born 26 November 1963), is an English professional rugby league footballer of the 1980s and '90s. A Great Britain international representative Fullback, Wing, Centre, and Stand-off/Five-eighth, he also coached the England national side at rugby union.
Lydon played first schoolboy curtain-raiser to Challenge Cup final at Wembley in 1975. He signed professional forms with Widnes from Wigan St Patrick's, making his début in a 9–10 defeat by Leigh in 1982.
In 1983 he made the first of three appearances for the Great Britain Under-24 team against France in January and a month later makes his full Great Britain début, scoring a try and three goals in 20–5 win over France in Carcassonne. In 1984 he won the Lance Todd Trophy as man of the match in Widnes' Wembley win over hometown Wigan, famously scoring two 75-yard interception tries, as well as Man of Steel, Division One Player and Young Player of the Year awards.
In 1986, when he joined Wigan, Lydon became rugby league's first £100,000 transfer (based on increases in average earnings, this would be approximately £327,600 in 2013), making his début in a 44–6 win over Hull. During the 1987–88 Rugby Football League season, he played in the centres for defending champions Wigan in their 1987 World Club Challenge victory against the visiting Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles at Central Park. During the game, Manly second rower "Rambo" Ron Gibbs became the first player sent off in a World Club Challenge after a high tackle on Lydon. Later in the game after being tackled by Dale Shearer, the Manly fullback appeared to step on Lydon's head after he had got the ball away to team mate David Stephenson.
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