An Interview with talented and skilful English great Paul Sculthorpe

Ex English Rugby League player and Loose Forward Paul Sculthorpe, speaks to us about his fantastic Rugby League career and how he loved the great game.

36 year old Paul Sculthorpe will go down in England history as one of the best loose forwards to play for both St Helens and England. The athletic loose forward gave it his all and you always knew he delivered his best football every week.

From a very young age Paul enjoyed a lot of sports and said that “I’ve always been very sporty, I think been one of three brothers I’ve always grown up with a ball in my hand or at my feet” this perfectly describing the back ground that made a great English Rugby League loose forward.

Paul from a tender young age was destined to be a sporting superstar, making a career and name for himself in the Rugby League world.

Paul’s career began at Warrington in 1994, after four years with the club that he had come to know and love he left to play for St. Helens, “It was never about leaving for money. Warrington were struggling financially at the time when I left….I was already playing for GB age 18 and I was playing guys who were winning competitions and trophies, and playing in big games and World Club Challenges, and that’s what I wanted. I wanted to be a part of the winning team”

Although torn between staying with his humble team, Paul made the decision to ask for a transfer to St. Helens, which turned out to be the right decision.

During Paul’s career, he won two Man of Steel awards (Best player of the English Super League) in 2001 and 2002. During this time he had also won 3 Super League grand finals, 4 Challenge cup finals and 2 World Cup Challenge finals. He was also well regarded as a goal kicker and helped St Helens and England win close games.

Every great Rugby League player at least once in his career thinks about crossing the boundary, should I try Rugby Union? Paul was offered a contract with the Leicester Tigers in 2002, who Leicester Tigers in 2002, who were the top English team at the time, and in 2005 Saracens offered the same contract, but declined both “I was already in a contract up here, they financially looked after me, Rugby Union just didn’t appeal to me. I had young kids at the time going to school, I just think moving and relocating to do something I didn’t know if I was going to be good at, was too big of a risk”

Paul also suggested that he would have looked at coming to the NRL. “Yeah, I had offers from a couple of clubs in the NRL who had approached me, and again it was better financially over here at the time and certainly with the exchange rate, that’s where you get  a lot of Australians earning their money over here and sending it to Australia. The exchange was fantastic at the time. For me to do it the other way certainly wouldn’t have been appealing. It would have been a great experience to play in the NRL, and people say test yourself against the best, but I think I did this at international level. I just thought at the time this wasn’t in the best interests of myself and my family”

When you have played for your country 32 times (for England and Great Britain) you certainly want to play against the best, and show the best that you aren’t afraid of them. Paul certainly wasn’t afraid and he felt that playing against Australia was something he thoroughly enjoyed. “I felt it brought the best out of me as a player and I loved testing myself against the best”.

Paul admitted that the first ten years of his career he went injury free, however injuries had a part to play in his final two years where he “just couldn’t shake it, it wasn’t one particular injury, it wasn’t something that was reoccurring, it was just a number of different injuries where it just seemed to be a run of bad luck”

Paul currently works as an ambassor for St Helens RFC alongside his other business interests away from the game.