Player Profile

The son Welsh international Gus Risman, John emulated his father by playing for Wales, unlike his older brother Bev, who chose England. With his first club Workington Town, where he played for over ten years, he won two Lancashire Cup winners medals. John became passionate about developing rugby league and he started this as a player when he became a founder member of Fulham RLFC in 1980 (who later became London Crusaders, Harlequins and London Broncos). On retirement, he kept in contact with Wales but became more involved in the Scotland Rugby League in a development and coaching role, initially with Scotland Students, coaching them in the 1996 Student World Cup, naturally adding to his day job as a PE teacher at a school in Workington. He later became president of Scotland RL, allowing him to meet up with his former Wales team-mate Brian Juliff at functions between the two nations. In addition, going back to his Eastern European roots, John helped Serbia resurrect RL from 2002, later became head coach of the nation and was still involved as an advisory role in the World Cup qualifiers, where they faced Wales, in 2016. He was later named honourary chairman of Serbia RL, whilst "The Risman Cup" is played as a representative game in Serbia every year between sides called "Team John" and "Team Bev".