Martin Ryan

Attacking rugby league full-back

Martin Ryan, rugby league player: born Wigan, Lancashire 28 August 1923; married 1950 Eunice Boliver; died Wigan 13 January 2003.

Martin Ryan was one of the few rugby players of whom it could be said that he was not only one of the best in his position, but he also went a long way toward redefining it. Before him, the role of full-back in rugby league was essentially one which demanded defensive soundness and a strong kicking game. Since Ryan, no full-back has been considered truly world-class without extensive credentials as a counter-attacker.

If the legendary Jim Sullivan was the exemplar of the earlier style, then it was fitting that Ryan should follow him into the Wigan side, having signed from the local amateur club, St Josephs, in 1940. At that stage, he was seen primarily as a centre and it was his versatility as a young player to which Ryan attributed the evolution of his running game:

I signed as a centre, played at scrum-half and loose forward, so it was my natural inclination to run with the ball whenever I had the opportunity, even though I was frequently catching it at the back.

That approach proved an immediate success with the post-war Wigan team, for whom Ryan played 300 matches before a recurring shoulder injury forced him into premature retirement in 1952. He was an important member of the sides that won the Championship five times between 1944 and 1952, his ability to link up with his half-backs, Cec Mountford and Tommy Bradshaw, or to chime into an equally star-studded three-quarter line providing Wigan with one of their most potent attacking weapons.

Ryan was also a member of the team that won the Challenge Cup final at Wembley in 1948, his try-saving tackle on Trevor Foster helping to preserve a narrow lead as Wigan eventually beat Bradford Northern 8-3. He missed the 1951 final victory over Barrow through injury, but played in the Championship final line-up the following year and was also in four successive Lancashire Cup-winning teams, from 1946 to 1949.

His club career brought him 67 tries, as well as 63 goals in his occasional role as a place-kicker, but it was for the way that his skills in attack and defence blended with the team as a whole that Ryan is remembered as one of the club's greatest full-backs. He also made his mark for Great Britain, despite an unfortunate first tour to Australia in 1946, when he only played four games because of injury.

He finally made his belated Test début against the New Zealand tourists the following year and then played in two of the three Tests of the series as Great Britain whitewashed Australia in the 1948-49 season. In the second Test in November, in front of more than 36,000 spectators at Swinton, Ryan was regarded as one of Britain's best players in a 16-7 victory. The following January, he produced a moment that epitomised the strengths of his game, coming into the back-line to send Stan McCormack over for the try that put his side into the lead and on the way to a 23-9 triumph in the third Test.

Ryan toured for a second time in 1950, winning the last of his four caps in a 6-4 victory over Australia in the mud at Sydney. He had played all three of his Ashes Tests in direct opposition to Clive Churchill, "The Little Master" who has often been described as the best full-back of all time, but there is no hint he lost anything by the comparison.

Ryan remained deeply involved in rugby league after his retirement, as a long-serving director of his only professional club and also through his career with Burtonwood Brewery, a connection through which he brought much-needed sponsorship to the game he had served with distinction.

Dave Hadfield