Profile

Although born in Wolverhampton, Alf Wood played his first rugby down in the West Country and was full back for the Newton Abbott Rugby Union club at the tender age of 16. He later went to play for Bristol and Cheltenham, gaining county honours for both Devon and Gloucestershire before being capped by England in the 1907-08 season.

The third test of the first ever Rugby League tour, by the famous New Zealand “All Golds”, happened to be played in Cheltenham and Alf was in attendance. An Oldham deputation approached him at the match and by the following season he had switched codes to play for the Watersheddings club. He set the standard for a glittering career, by kicking seven goals on his debut at St Helens.

The most famous game of his career was reserved for the International arena and perhaps the most famous Rugby League test match of all time. Having been selected for the 1914 tour to Australia and New Zealand, Alf was one of the walking wounded when it came to select the side to play in the third and deciding test in Sydney. He was in fact suffering from a broken nose and an injured ankle, but such was the extent of the tourists’ sick list, he volunteered to turn out, no doubt in response to the famous “England expects” telegram received from Northern Union H.Q., which urged the team to fulfil the fixture.

The injury crisis got worse as the match progressed and for a time the Lions were down to only nine men, but Alf emerged the hero in what was to become known as the “Rorke’s Drift” test, kicking four vital goals and providing a formidable last line of defence that won him handsome praise in the Sydney press. Great Britain won the match 14 – 6 and his place in RL history was assured. On that same tour Alf kicked 15 goals and scored a try in the match against South Australia.

He won every major honour with Oldham, except the Challenge Cup and toured again in 1920, being the oldest player ever to do so when aged 36, although he did not add to his four caps. If his career had not been interrupted by the First World War he would have been well up among the club’s top appearance makers. Alf is also one of only two Oldham RL players to play in a match for Oldham Athletic, the other being Welshman Frank Holbrook.