Rugger in the Ring

On a bitterly cold Wednesday night in late February I was queueing up outside the Premier Suite of the Reebok Stadium, Bolton, to watch “Rugger in the Ring”.  Rugger in the Ring pitted eight ex rugby league players together to take part in a prizefighter style boxing bout to find the hardest man in rugby league.

The ex players were :-

•   Tim ‘The Timebomb’ Street (Leigh, Swinton, Oldham, Hull FC and Lancashire Lynx),
•   Mick ‘Butch’ Cassidy (Wigan, Widnes and Barrow), 
•   Keith ‘The Chief’ Senior (Sheffield Eagles and Leeds), 
•   Lee ‘Raging Bull’ Radford (Hull FC and Bradford), 
•   Paul ‘The Saint’ Sculthorpe (Warrington and St Helens), 
•   Ian ‘Real Steel’ Sibbit (Warrington, Salford and Bradford), 
•   Sean ‘Wild Cat’ Casey (St Helens, Whitehaven, Swinton), 
•   Alan ‘The Assassin’ Hunte (St Helens, Wakefield, Hull FC, Warrington, Salford).

The competition constituted of quarter finals, semi finals and a final.  The quarter finals and semi finals were three one minute rounds and the final was three one and a half minute rounds.  In the first quarter final bout Mick Cassidy beat Tim Street.  Bout two was won by Lee Radford who beat Keith Senior.  Lee Radford was the favourite heading into the competition.  Boxing bout three was won by Paul Sculthorpe who beat a very unlucky Ian Sibbit.  The last of the quarter finals was won by Sean Casey who beat Alan Hunte.

After a short interval in which the ex players were able to catch their breath, a few of them were blowing heavily and I wasn’t surprised as they were really going for it, and the punters were able to recharge their plastic pint pots the semi finals started.

Lee Radford beat Mick Cassidy in a great battle which both boxers didn’t deserve to lose.  I was gutted as I wanted Mick to win the competition and pick up another trophy.  Unfortunately it wasn’t to be.  Radford, the favourite, was in the final.

In the second semi final Sculthorpe was up against Casey.  Scully got a good couple of shots on Casey nose and the blood began to flow.  This was another epic bout in which both boxers didn’t deserve to lose.  The so called ‘Saint’ did enough to win and was through to the final.

Following the semi finals an auction took place in which the 1200 crowd could bid on a number of items including a meal for four with Paul Sculthorpe at a restaurant of their choosing (not exactly a prize I would want), a rugby league team training day with Sean Long and Martin Gleeson (beat you could of picked up a couple of betting tips also) and the last lot was for a box at the rugby league World Cup final at Old Trafford in November!  Regrettably it was out of my price range as it finally went for £2,100, bargain!?!

A short video about Joining Jack (which the evening was raising money for) was shown on the big screen.  It was a very humbling film in which Andy Johnson talked about his sons battle with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.  As the film was being shown you could of heard a pin beingdropped, everybody stopped what they were doing and watched.

The final was between Paul Sculthorpe and Lee Radford.  The first two rounds were very close but I felt that Radford just shaved them.  In the third and final round Sculthorpe needed to pull something out of the bag if he wanted to win the cup.  And pull something out of the bag he did.  He hit Radford with a cracking left hook that put him on the canvas with an almighty thud.  As soon as Radford him the deck the crowd were on their feet.  It really was a fantastic punch any boxer would of been proud of, never mind one who had only been boxing for the last 12 weeks.  The referee gave Lee a standing eight count, in which he did well to clear his head with, and then he went back for more punishment.  The fight didn’t last much longer when the ref stopped it again to save Radford from further pounding and declared  Sculthorpe the winner.  All in all the third round only lasted a mere 38 seconds.

It was a brilliant night, well done to all the fighters, but especially (and I hate to say it) congratulations Paul Sculthorpe on winning Rugger in the Ring and being crowned the hardest man in rugby league.

*** This article first appeared in issue 3 of Cherry & White (a Wigan Warriors Fanzine).  You can follow Cherry & White on twitter @CherryWhiteZine and purchase the fanzine here :- cherrywhite.bigcartel.com ***