Garry Schofield

Hull

During his début season Schofield was first selected to represent Great Britain against France in February 1984. He went on to be the 1983–84 Rugby Football League season's top try-scorer. After that he was selected as an 18-year-old to go on the 1984 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia. Although Australia swept the Lions 3–0 in The Ashes series, Schofield won praise from the Aussie players, press and even the public for his clever play and electrifying running game.

Schofield was an interchange/substitute, i.e. number 15, in Hull's 24–28 defeat by Wigan in the 1985 Challenge Cup Final during the 1984–85 season at Wembley Stadium, London on Saturday 4 May 1985, in front of a crowd of 99,801, in what is regarded as the most marvellous cup final in living memory, which Hull narrowly lost after fighting back from 12–28 down at half-time. Also in 1985, he re-wrote the record books by scoring four tries for Great Britain as they beat New Zealand in the second Test series at Central Park, Wigan. The series ended 1–1, with the third game drawn.

Schofield played right-centre, i.e. number 3, in Hull's 13–2 victory over Castleford in the 1983 Yorkshire County Cup Final during the 1983–84 season at Elland Road, Leeds on Saturday 15 October 1983, played right-centre, i.e. number 3, and scored 4-conversions and a drop goals in the 29–12 victory over Hull Kingston Rovers in the 1984 Yorkshire County Cup Final during the 1984–85 season at Boothferry Park, Hull on Saturday 27 October 1984, and played right-centre, i.e. number 3, in the 24–31 defeat by Castleford in the 1986 Yorkshire County Cup Final during the 1986–87 season at Headingley, Leeds on Saturday 11 October 1986.

Schofield played as an substitute, i.e. number 14, (replacing Fullback Gary Kemble) in Hull Kingston Rovers' 12–0 victory over Hull F.C. in the 1984–85 John Player Special Trophy Final during the 1984–85 season at Boothferry Park on Saturday 26 January 1985.

Sydney

Moving to Sydney, Schofield spent the 1985, 1986 and 1987 NSWRL seasons with the Balmain Tigers club and gained the rare distinction for a British footballer of becoming the season's top try-scorer in 1986 (he crossed for 13 tries to finish equal with Manly-Warringah's Phil Blake). A year earlier, the Tigers won the National Panasonic Cup – Schofield's only major winner's medal at club level (not including the 1988 Yorkshire County Cup which he won at Leeds).

In his three seasons with Balmain, he scored 28 tries, nine goals and four drop-goals in just 45 appearances.

He did not play in the 1988 Winfield Cup as he was touring with the Lions, but returned in 1989 to play for lowly Western Suburbs Magpies. Ellery Hanley, Schofield's international team mate who had led Balmain to the 1988 NSWRL Grand Final, recommended him to the club. Schofield scored five tries in eight starts for the club.

In 2012, Schofield and Hanley were inducted into the Wests Tigers Hall of Fame.

Leeds

Schofield moved from Hull to his home town club Leeds (Heritage № 1183) in 1987 for a world record fee of £155,000. In 1988 Schofield was named the costliest player in world rugby league. He was selected to go on the 1988 Great Britain Lions tour. In 1990, as vice-captain, Schofield was outstanding in Great Britain's series triumph in New Zealand and then in the shock 19–12 victory over Australia in the first Ashes test at Wembley.

Schofield played right-centre, i.e. number 3, and scored 2-tries and a drop goal in Leeds' 33–12 victory over Castleford in the 1988 Yorkshire County Cup Final during the 1988–89 season at Elland Road on Sunday 16 October 1988.

Schofield played right-centre, i.e. number 3, in Leeds' 14–15 defeat by St. Helens in the 1988–89 John Player Special Trophy Final during the 1988–89 season at Central Park on Saturday 9 January 1988.

In 1991 Schofield won the Man of Steel Award for player of the season.

He experienced possibly his finest hour when captaining the 1992 Great Britain Lions tour of Australia and New Zealand with a magnificent 33–10 win over Australia in the second test at Princes Park in Melbourne, with Schofield a clear choice as man-of-the-match. But the Ashes were once again lost by two games to one. Due to an injury suffered by Hanley, Schofield captained the Lions in all 6 tests on the tour. Later that year Schofield retained the captaincy over Hanley for the World Cup Final against Australia played at Wembley Stadium (Hanley was the 1992 Lions tour captain but only played 15 minutes on tour due to injury). In front of an international rugby league world record crowd of 73,631 Australia prevailed over their British rivals, winning 10–6 thanks to a late Steve Renouf try. Schofield retaining the Lions captaincy for the World Cup Final would lead to personal animosity between himself and Hanley for a number of years.

A year later, Schofield captained Great Britain to a superb 3–0 series whitewash over New Zealand before ending his Test career with two appearances in the 1994 Ashes series. With Hanley taking over from Mal Reilly as Great Britain coach in 1994, Schofield was controversially overlooked for selection for the first test at Wembley, won 8–4 by the Lions, but was selected to the bench for the final two tests. It was Schofield's enterprising play in the second test at Old Trafford, won 34–8 by Australia, that saw Britain temporarily come to life in the second half of the game. Surprisingly, Hanley then chose to play Wigan loose forward Phil Clarke at stand-off instead of prompting Schofield from the bench in the 3rd and deciding test at Elland Road and Australia went on to win the game (and thus the series) 23–4. The rumoured animosity between Hanley and Schofield was said to be behind Hanley's decision not to start his Leeds team mate in the test decider.

He controversially missed out on selection for England's 1995 World Cup squad. But he did enough in the Test arena to win the respect of the usually hard-to-please Australians. When asked in 2010 by Rugby League World who was the best British player he faced, the Australian legend Brett Kenny replied, "Garry Schofield – he was a great player and a real thorn in the side of anyone he came across. He could score tries from nothing when he was a young centre and then he went on to become a very good stand-off and a very good leader."

He made over 250 appearances for Leeds, scoring 147 tries and 746 points.

Huddersfield

Schofield finally left Leeds in 1996, joining Huddersfield for a six-figure sum. After helping Huddersfield into Super League, he took over the coaching reins but was dismissed after 13 games, having picked up two wins. He later successfully sued the club for unfair dismissal. Interestingly, it took Huddersfield's next three coaches – Mal Reilly, John Kear and Tony Smith – more than 13 games to register two wins, with the club so far off the pace in their early Super League years. It was only after relegation and promotion under Smith that they became competitive.

After playing

Schofield briefly assisted the South Africans in 2010 and 2011 after impressing their management with his coaching of the British Amateur Rugby League Association Young Lions (Under 19s) in May & June 2010. He led the Lions to five wins from five and players such as Tom Spencer (Wigan), Daniel Rooney (Workington Town) and Alex Walmsley (Batley) have since graced the professional ranks. Later in 2010, Schofield was appointed to coach high-flying, big-spending Barrow in the Championship, although he was fired after only 5 games in 2011 after a personality clash with the club's chairman Des Johnston, who was later that year banned from the sport for eight years by the Rugby Football League.

Schofield is also a high-profile media pundit. In March 2001, Schofield's Autobiography, Tries the Limit was published.

Arriva Yorkshire honoured 13 rugby league footballers on Thursday 20 August 2009, at a ceremony at Wheldon Road, the home of Castleford. A fleet of new buses were named after the 'Arriva Yorkshire Rugby League Dream Team'. Members of the public nominated the best ever rugby league footballers to have played in West Yorkshire, supported by local rugby league journalists; James Deighton from BBC Leeds, and Tim Butcher, managing director of League Publications Ltd, who publish League Express and Rugby League World. The 'Arriva Yorkshire Rugby League Dream Team' included Schofield.

In 2011, Schofield was awarded the Rugby League World Golden Boot retrospectively for the 1990 season in which he was adjudged to have been the world's best rugby league player.

In 2013, he was named as the eighth best player worldwide to have played rugby league since 1980, in a book entitled 'Rugby League: A Critical History, 1980–2013' which was written by the League Express journalist Richard de la Riviere.

Later that year, he was inducted into the British Rugby League Hall of Fame, one of the highest honours possible for a player.