Jon Sharp played his junior rugby at
that prodigious breeding ground Travellers’ Saints, but on turning professional
in 1984 opted for Hull rather than his hometown Featherstone. He was destined
to make his debut at Post Office Road anyway, when he came off the bench for
Hull against Rovers in December 1984, a game Featherstone won 20-4. Jon
established himself as a first team regular at loose forward under a variety of
coaches at Hull, including Brian Smith who had a big influence on his career.
He played in the 1989 (after beating Rovers in the semi-final) and 1991
Premiership finals, having previously played in the 1986 Yorkshire Cup final.
After enjoying a benefit year in 1994/5 he left Hull and finally came home to
Featherstone, making his debut on the opening day of the Centenary season at,
ironically enough, Hull. Rovers triumphed that day 26-20. By the end of the
first summer season in 1996 he had made 27 first team appearances, a steadying
influence in the second-row at a time of great flux in the Rovers team. He then
retired to concentrate on coaching, and Rovers gave him his first break as the
Under-18 coach. He later assistant coach at St. Helens and head coach at Huddersfield.
He then came back to Featherstone as coaching advisor to Danny Evans at the end
of the 2008 season following David Hobbs’ departure.
By the time Jon signed for Rovers, his
younger brother Tim had already moved on, having given Rovers four years service
at half-back. Tim Sharp played as a youngster in the 1981 curtain raiser at
Wembley for Featherstone & Castleford schools alongside future Rovers Neil
Roebuck, Jason Sims and Mark Webster. He signed for Featherstone in 1987, and
made his debut in January 1989 at Halifax after a steady apprenticeship in the
A team. He alternated between stand-off partner to Deryck Fox and deputy
full-back to Chris Bibb in his first two seasons. To establish himself in the
first team Tim had to adapt his natural distributing and kicking game, a role
customarily filled by Fox. Despite this, he went on to play a total of 91
games, scored 15 tries and kicked 6 goals. To illustrate his versatility those
91 games consisted of 5 games from full-back, 25 at stand-off, just 7 games in
his natural scrum-half position, 13 at loose forward and even a game at hooker,
as well as 30 games off the bench. He faced his older brother on the field a
number of times, the first time being in November 1990 when Rovers beat Hull
14-6.Tim Sharp left for York in the summer of 1993, perhaps disappointed that
he didn’t inherit the number seven shirt following Fox’s departure to Bradford,
and later played for Hunslet.
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