Merv Hicks - Second row
Wales RLDate Of Birth | 15/12/1943 |
Place Of Birth | Cross Keys |
Clubs | Hull FC, Warrington Wolves, Cross Keys, St Helens, Leeds Rhinos, Doncaster, Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Bradford Bulls, North Sydney Bears |
Honours | Great Britain, Wales RL |
One of the best players never to play for Wales, Merv did win a Great Britain cap in 1965 against New Zealand. He also played in the first ever GB U24's game which was played that same year, as they beat France. He also represented the Commonwealth XIII rugby league team against New Zealand in 1965. His only selection for Wales, for the 1975 Rugby League World Championships, was cruelly denied by a broken arm suffered in a club game just weeks before the tournament kicked off.
Mervyn started his rugby at Cross Keys and represented the Welsh Youth XV in 1960 captaining the team. He turned professional with Doncaster in 1961 who paid £1,000 for him. But after just three appearances, Warrington came in, paying £6,000 to the Dons for him. He joined St Helens in 1964 and helped them to win four trophies in 1965-66, but Merv decided to begin a new life in Australia with his wife and two young sons and joined Canterbury Bankstown, known as the Berries, now the Bulldogs. He enjoyed five successful seasons at Belmore, including a Grand final appearance, before joining North Sydney Bears as captain-coach in 1971 where he signed fellow Welshman Jim Mills. Merv actually played in the 1970 pre-season competition with Norths but his contract was ruled to be invalid and he returned to Canterbury that year. When he finally got to Norths, he had replaced another Welshman, Roy Francis, as head coach, with Hicks being far more popular with the local media, due to his skin colour being white!
His seven seasons in the Sydney competition were highlighted by an ultimately unsuccessful newspaper campaign to have the international representation rules changed so that he could be picked for New South Wales and Australia, such was his dominance at club level. A short season with the Orange CYMS in country NSW had sufficient impact on the district that he was nominated for the club's "Team of the Century", prior to the Hicks family's return to the north of England. He was back in blighty for four years with spells at Hull, Leeds and Bradford Northern before returning Down Under once more. His rugby league career was to end with a three-year stint with the Bowral Blues in Group 6 of the New South Wales Country Rugby League. He continued to coach Bowral after retiring as a player and was also linked with Riverina in the country championship, alongside his career in hotel management.
Mervyn started his rugby at Cross Keys and represented the Welsh Youth XV in 1960 captaining the team. He turned professional with Doncaster in 1961 who paid £1,000 for him. But after just three appearances, Warrington came in, paying £6,000 to the Dons for him. He joined St Helens in 1964 and helped them to win four trophies in 1965-66, but Merv decided to begin a new life in Australia with his wife and two young sons and joined Canterbury Bankstown, known as the Berries, now the Bulldogs. He enjoyed five successful seasons at Belmore, including a Grand final appearance, before joining North Sydney Bears as captain-coach in 1971 where he signed fellow Welshman Jim Mills. Merv actually played in the 1970 pre-season competition with Norths but his contract was ruled to be invalid and he returned to Canterbury that year. When he finally got to Norths, he had replaced another Welshman, Roy Francis, as head coach, with Hicks being far more popular with the local media, due to his skin colour being white!
His seven seasons in the Sydney competition were highlighted by an ultimately unsuccessful newspaper campaign to have the international representation rules changed so that he could be picked for New South Wales and Australia, such was his dominance at club level. A short season with the Orange CYMS in country NSW had sufficient impact on the district that he was nominated for the club's "Team of the Century", prior to the Hicks family's return to the north of England. He was back in blighty for four years with spells at Hull, Leeds and Bradford Northern before returning Down Under once more. His rugby league career was to end with a three-year stint with the Bowral Blues in Group 6 of the New South Wales Country Rugby League. He continued to coach Bowral after retiring as a player and was also linked with Riverina in the country championship, alongside his career in hotel management.
SEASON | P | W | D | L | TRY | GOALS | DG | PTS | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
TOTAL | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
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).