Ray French (rugby)

Raymond James "Ray" French, MBE (born 23 December 1939) is a former rugby union and rugby league dual-code international player who achieved the rare honour of representing his country (England) at international level in both codes of the game. French won his four caps for the England national rugby union team in 1961 as a lock forward, playing in all four matches of the 1961 Five Nations Championship. After switching to rugby league as a Second-row, French enjoyed a spell at his home town club, St. Helens, but also enjoyed a successful spell at Widnes which he remembers fondly.

After training as a school teacher, he taught at Cowley School in St. Helens, Lancashire, where his local counterparts included Brian Ashton who taught at Stonyhurst College.

As well as continuing to coach rugby, French became a well known commentator on rugby league on both television and radio. He commentated for the BBC on every Challenge Cup Final between 1982 and 2008. He is well known for his range of colloquialisms. French is regularly heard on the Rugby League show Try Time each Thursday on BBC Radio Merseyside giving his views on the state of the game in his forthright way.

In 2010 French received the Mike Gregory Spirit of Rugby League Award to mark his contribution to the game.