Colin Clifft

Colin Clifft

Born in Leeds, Colin Clifft started his rugby league career at Wakefield Trinity, where he stood out as a tallish, rangy, and difficult to tackle forward with good handling skills. When he was aged just 22 he won international honours when he was selected for England against France in 1956. This was just reward for the early promise his career had shown and he marked the occasion by grabbing a try. Colin then moved to Halifax where he played for a further three years. Despite being a consistent performer, that early England cap to be Colin’s last international honour, although he did play for Yorkshire whilst he was at Halifax.

In the summer of 1959 Rovers decided to do something about the embarrassment of riches the club had at scrum-half at that time. Don Fox got the nod as first choice number seven, and the talented Alan Marchant had to leave. Marchant was swopped for Halifax’s loose forward, Colin Clifft. On the face of it, Clifft, now aged 25, was an unlikely signing when he arrived at Post office Road. Rovers looked well blessed in the back row, especially at loose forward where both Cliff Lambert and young Terry Clawson employed their wide range of skills. However, canny coach Harold Moxon soon decided that, of the three players, it would be Clifft who would operate at loose forward and thus Lambert and Clawson both played second-row. There could be no greater testimony to Colin’s skills than that.

It quickly became apparent that Clifft was a tactically astute player and he revelled in the distribution role. He quickly settled into a very good team, although his first year ended prematurely with a shoulder injury just before an unsuccessful Challenge Cup semi-final. The following season was an excellent year as the potent triumvirate of Clawson, Lambert and Clifft caused all kinds of problems for opposition defences, offering, as they did, a variety of attacking options. In 1961/2 Rovers came to within a whisker of both the Challenge Cup final and Championship final, thwarted at the semi-final stage in both competitions by a powerful Wakefield team.

Clifft was our loose forward in the 1963 Yorkshire Cup final against his former club Halifax. However, Rovers turned in an awful show, and ex-Rover Alan Marchant lifted the trophy. Colin suffered a serious back injury in that game which finished his season. He then spent a year battling back to fitness, including a spell in the A team. Colin Clifft played his last first team match in October 1964 and in total played 118 games for Featherstone Rovers and scored 17 tries.