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Dick Huddart: St Helens legend and three-time Ashes winner with Great Britain dies aged 85

Tributes are being paid to Dick Huddart, who won the RFL Championship in 1959 and the Challenge Cup in 1961 with St Helens, and was a three-time Ashes winner with Great Britain in 1958, 1959 and 1962

Rugby League great Dick Huddart has passed away, aged 85. Photo courtesy of Saints Heritage Society.
Image: Rugby League great Dick Huddart has passed away, aged 85 (photo courtesy of Saints Heritage Society)

Three-time Ashes winner and 1961 Lance Todd Trophy recipient Dick Huddart has passed away in Australia, aged 85.

Widely considered as one of the greatest forwards ever to play the game of rugby league, Huddart will be mourned wherever the game is played but particularly by St Helens fans, those at his original club Whitehaven, at the St George club in Sydney, and in Dubbo where he loved his time in Country football.

Saints paid a record fee for a forward in 1958 (£7,500) to sign him from Whitehaven after Huddart had played his part in the Cumbrians' stunning 14-11 defeat of the 1956 Kangaroos and reached their first and only Cup semi-final, losing controversially to Leeds, in 1957.

He was a try-scorer in Saints' 1959 Championship Final 44-22 defeat of Hunslet and then Lance Todd Trophy winner when Saints won an epic Wembley Final 12-6 against Wigan in 1961.

St Helens paid a record fee for a forward in 1958 (£7,500) to sign Huddart from Whitehaven. Photo courtesy of Saints Heritage Society
Image: St Helens paid a record fee for a forward in 1958 (£7,500) to sign Huddart from Whitehaven (photo courtesy of Saints Heritage Society)

Huddart starred on two Ashes-winning Lions tours of Australia in 1958 and 1962 and was the finest second-row forward in the world in his prime.

It was no surprise when the St George club paid £10,000 to sign him from St Helens in 1964 having won every honour in the British game.

He was added to a stellar Dragons team in the midst of an unprecedented 11-in-a-row premiership run (1956-66). Huddart played in the last of those deciders, typically scoring a try in the 23-4 defeat of Balmain Tigers.

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Huddart starred on two Ashes-winning Lions tours in 1958 and 1962. Photo courtesy of Saints Heritage Society.
Image: Huddart starred on two Ashes-winning Lions tours of Australia in 1958 and 1962 (photo courtesy of Saints Heritage Society)

Huddart scored 76 tries in 209 games for St Helens (1958-64), a phenomenal scoring ratio for a forward in that era.

He also scored 16 tries in 78 games for the St George Dragons.

Huddart represented Great Britain in 16 tests between 1958 and 1963, savouring Ashes triumphs in 1958, 1959 and 1962.

A proud Cumbrian, he represented his county on 11 occasions.

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