John Woods (rugby league)

John Woods

John Woods Statue outside Leigh Sports Village (since 2016)
Personal information
Full name	John Woods
Born	(1956-09-14) 14 September 1956 (age 68) Leigh, Greater Manchester, England
Playing information
Position	Fullback, Centre, Stand-off
Club Years Team Pld T G FG P 1976–85 Leigh 302 135 859 11 2172 1985–87 Bradford Northern 62 21 167 3 421 1987–89 Warrington 72 25 254 5 613 1989–90 Rochdale Hornets 28 16 65 0 194 1990–92 Leigh 44+3 17 125 2 320 Total 511 214 1470 21 3720 Representative Years Team Pld T G FG P 1979–81 England 7 2 8 0 22 1979–87 Great Britain 11 1 13 0 29 1977–87[1] Lancashire 6 5 5 0 25 1977–79[2] GB Under 24 5 2 11 0 28 1979[3] GB tour games 12+1 12 62 1 161
Coaching information
Club Years Team Gms W D L W% 1984–85 Leigh 36 11 2 23 31
Source: [4][5][6] As of 12 October 2020

John Woods is an English former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, and coached in the 1980s. He played at representative level for Great Britain and England, and at club level for Leigh (two spells), Bradford Northern, Warrington and Rochdale Hornets, as a goal-kicking fullback, centre, or stand-off, and coached at club level for Leigh.

John Woods won caps for England while at Leigh in 1979 against Wales (interchange/substitute), and France, in 1980 against Wales (interchange/substitute), and France, in 1981 against France, Wales, and Wales (interchange/substitute),^[5] and won caps for Great Britain while at Leigh in 1979 against Australia (3 matches), and New Zealand, in 1980 against New Zealand, in 1981 against France (2 matches), in 1982 against Australia, and Australia (interchange/substitute), in 1983 against France, and while at Warrington in 1987 against Papua New Guinea.^[6]

John Woods played stand-off, and scored 2-goals in Leigh's 8–3 victory over Widnes in the 1981 Lancashire Cup Final during the 1981–82 season at Central Park, Wigan on Saturday 26 September 1981, and played stand-off, and scored 2-goals in Warrington's 16–28 defeat by Wigan in the 1987 Lancashire Cup Final during the 1987–88 season at Knowsley Road, St. Helens on Sunday 11 October 1987.^[7]

John Woods played at centre in Leigh's 4–12 defeat by Castleford in the 1976 BBC2 Floodlit Trophy Final during the 1976–77 season at Hilton Park, Leigh on Tuesday 14 December 1976.^{[citation needed]}

John Woods holds Leigh's "Most Career Points" record with 2,492 points,.^[8] With 3,985-points he is sixth on British rugby league's "most points in a career" record list behind Neil Fox, Jim Sullivan, Kevin Sinfield, Gus Risman and Danny Brough.^[9]

John Woods' Testimonial match at Leigh took place in 1984.

• (archived by web.archive.org) Lions beat the Blues
• Warrington's World Cup heroes - John Woods
• Photograph "John Woods - John Woods signed for Northern from Leigh in 1985. He scored 421 points in 62 games for the club. - Date: 01/01/1985" at rlhp.co.uk
• Statistics at wolvesplayers.thisiswarrington.co.uk