Saint And Sinner : The Autobiography of a Rugby League Legend

Nobody has ever been able to ignore Alex Murphy. In his rugby league career stretching over forty years - from schoolboy days playing with St Helens, to international success for Great Britain, as a player, coach and manager. This book tells the tale of how a liittle man reached the summit of his sport, and helped other little men along the way.

Nobody has ever been able to ignore Alex Murphy. In a glittering rugby league career stretching over forty years - from schoolboy days playing with St Helens, to international success for Great Britain, and years of glory as player, coach and manager of a host of high-profile clubs including Wigan and Warrington - fame and controversy have always been present: Murphy''s row with Wigan chairman and one-time friend Maurice Lindsay, when he was accused of trying to strangle him with his own telephone cord; the time Syd Hines head-butted him at Wembley, believing Murphy had taken a dive to get him sent off; his two tours, including the 1958 ''Battle of Brisbane'', and how he ''spat the dummy'', costing himself a third tour. . . All this, and a further fund of tales from the tough world of rugby league, is given Murphy''s unique treatment in this uncompromising autobiography. SAINT AND SINNER is the tale of how a liittle man reached the summit of his sport, and helped other little men along the way. The cocky kid - youngest ever to tour with Great Britain, who could have chosen professional football as a career ''if it hadn''t been too soft'' - is known to millions today as Murph the Mouth: after-dinner speaker, TV commentator, outspoken newspaper columnist and now holder of the OBE, whose love for rugby league has never dwindled.