Like
any front-row forward worth his weight, Mick Gibbins served a long
apprenticeship in the reserve team before developing into a rock solid force
which held the Featherstone front-row together during a transitional period at
the end of the seventies and the beginning of the eighties. The reward for his
labours was to go to Wembley in his benefit season and pick up a Challenge Cup
winner’s medal. Gibbins made his debut in September 1971 at Rochdale and in
that first season managed seven games as a second rower. Despite just one
appearance the following year, he then became a first team regular, still used
mainly in the second-row. From 1974/5 he began to play more regularly as a prop, but even during our Championship-winning
year of 1976/77 Mick’s contribution of 31 games was mostly as a second-row
forward or off the bench.
After
winning Great Britain Under 24 honours in 1977, Gibbins looked set for a long
interrupted run as Rovers number eight but it was around this time that this
redoubtable player began to be plagued by a serious back injury. For a player
who never took a backward step and relished his tackling duties, it must have
been an immensely frustrating time to have to play on through the pain barrier.
Once Thompson and Farrar had left, Mick’s front–row partner was often Jeff
Townsend, Terry Clawson, Kevin Anderson or Alan Bence. Rovers then signed next
week’s featured player Mick Morgan to partner Gibbins. Despite his injury
struggles Gibbins won two Yorkshire caps in 1979.
After
missing out on the Challenge Cup semi-finals of 1976 and 1978 there can be no
doubt that the highlight of Mick’s career was winning at Wembley in 1983, the
same year he was granted a testimonial. Of course he turned in another vintage
display on the biggest stage. After that, he slipped seamlessly into the role
of senior player in the first team: a coach’s dream who never complained, and
offered a tremendously high work-rate every week on a consistent basis. In
total Mick Gibbins played for Featherstone Rovers for sixteen years, the kind
of service and longevity which Rovers fans had become accustomed to seeing from
their front-row heroes, but which nevertheless was a phenomenal achievement. He
played 333 games, and scored 12 tries. After a disagreement with coach George
Pieniazek he left for the Boulevard and played four games for Hull before
retiring.
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