John Mantle -
Wales RLHeritage No | 273 |
Date Of Birth | 13/03/1942 |
Place Of Birth | Cardiff |
Education | Bedwellty Comprehensive School, Loughborough College |
Clubs | Blackpool Borough, Keighley Cougars, Oldham RLFC, Barrow Raiders, Leigh Leopards, Salford Red Devils, St Helens, Newport, Bargoed |
Regions | Leicestershire |
Honours | Wales RL, Great Britain, Wales, Wales Schools |
Managed | Cardiff City Blue Dragons, Wales RL, Leigh Leopards |
John Mantle led Wales on three occasions, the first being against England in 1968, and was the nation’s 25th captain. He scored one international try, which was against New Zealand in the World Cup match in Swansea in 1975. The 25-24 win was the last time the full Wales side beat New Zealand in either league or union. He played in the infamous "Battle of Brisbane", where he came on as a substitute in Wales’ 12-7 win over England. He was capped 13 times by Great Britain and was a 1966 Lions tourist to Australia, playing in seven tour matches in addition to all three Ashes tests. Starting in rugby union, he played for Newport and Bargoed and won two Welsh RU caps. He turned professional with St Helens in 1965 and turned out for the 435 times and played in 19 major finals. He was a member of the Saints side that won four trophies – Lancashire League, League Leader’s Bowl, Challenge Cup and League Championship – in 1965-66, when he played 48 matches. He played in the 1976-77 season for Salford before joining Leigh as player-coach for the 1977-78 season. He spent the 1978-79 season at Barrow before making brief appearances at Keighley, Oldham and Blackpool Borough. After his retirement, he was involved in the management of both Cardiff City Blue Dragons and the Welsh national side. He died on November 15th 2018 aged 76.
PLAYER FOR | P | W | D | L | TRY | GOALS | DG | PTS | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Great Britain | 13 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
Wales RL | 16 | 7 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |||
TOTAL | 29 | 10 | 0 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Note: The statistics tab shows all of the player’s known appearances for this particular Wales side against international sides or other non-capped recognised first class matches. To see exactly how many full test rugby league caps for Wales (or any other country) that this player has, please click the “Test Summary” tab. Nines individual player records are not shown, please click here for full details about Nines. Please also note that clubs’ current names are used throughout this website, due to the database only being able to feed one name per club (e.g. Wigan will also be known as Wigan Warriors throughout all player profiles).