Brian Lockwood, a member of the last Great Britain team to win the Rugby League World Cup and a four-time Challenge Cup winner, has died aged 78. Once described as “tough as teak and polished as mahogany”, he combined the resilience of a stereotypical rugby league forward with the mercurial ball-playing skills of a halfback in a career spanning two decades, seven clubs and 461 matches.
The highlight of that career came on the international stage, in France in 1972. Great Britain had already beaten Australia earlier in the tournament when they met again in the final of the World Cup in Lyon. Capable of playing in numerous positions in the forward pack, Lockwood had started all of Britain’s previous games in the competition, at either prop or second-row. In was in the latter position that he took the field for the final, partnering fellow second-row Phil Lowe.
