Name John Gray Role Cricketer | Position Hooker Awards Dally M Award Best Hooker | |
John Denis Gray (born 9 October 1948) is an English cricketer, and rugby union, and professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, playing cricket for Warwickshire, and Marylebone Cricket Club, as a left-hand bat, and left-arm medium-fast bowler, playing representative rugby union (RU) for England (7s), and at club level for Coventry R.F.C., as a Hooker, i.e. number 2, and playing representative rugby league (RL) for Great Britain, and England, and at club level for Wigan, North Sydney Bears (twice), and Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, as a prop, Hooker, Second-row, or loose forward/lock, i.e. number 8 or 10, 9, 11 or 12, or 13, during the era of contested scrums.
Born in Meriden, Warwickshire on 9 October 1948, John Gray was a pupil at Woodlands Comprehensive School, Coventry. He represented England (RU) in the 1973 International Seven-A-Side Tournament.
Gray switched to rugby league with English club Wigan and played at prop forward, scoring 4 conversions in their 19-9 victory over Salford in the 1973 Lancashire County Cup Final during the 1973–74 season at Wilderspool Stadium, Warrington, on Saturday 13 October 1973. Gray won caps for England (RL) while at Wigan in 1975 against France, and Wales, in the 1975 Rugby League World Cup against France, and won caps for Great Britain (RL) while at Wigan in 1974 against France (sub) (2 matches), Australia (2 matches), Australia (sub), and New Zealand (3 matches). Gray was one of the first players to introduce the now routine round-the-corner style of goal kicking to Australia, he won the 1976 Amco Cup 'superstar' prize for player of the competition, he was the 1982 Dally M Award winning hooker, a series of broken forearms, and constant back pain ended his career in 1983.
John Gray was named on the bench in the North Sydney Bears Team of the Century.