Roy Pollard (27 August 1927 – 30 October 2012) was an English professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

footballer who played in the 1940s and 1950s. He played at representative level for

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, and at club level for

Dewsbury Dewsbury is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Calder, West Yorkshire, River Calder and on an arm of the Calder and Hebble Navigation waterway. It is to the west of Wakefield, ...

and

Doncaster Doncaster ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don, it is the administrative centre of the City of Doncaster metropolitan borough, and is the second largest se ...

, as a .

Background

Roy Pollard's birth was registered in

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

district,

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...

, England, and he died aged 85 in

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

, England.

Rugby league career

Club career

Pollard played

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

for

and

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confl ...

before signing for

club

in 1948.

International honours

Roy Pollard won

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

s for

while at Dewsbury in 1949 against France, and in 1950 against Wales, and won a

for

while at Dewsbury in 1950 against New Zealand.

Genealogical information

Roy Pollard was the son of the rugby league footballer; Charles Pollard; the nephew of the rugby league footballer; Ernest Pollard; and the cousin of the

Wakefield RFC Wakefield RFC was an English rugby union club, founded in 1901 and folded in 2004 as a result of poor finances, with a trading loss of £105,000 for the season and unsecured creditors' loans of approximately £640,000. The club's final season w ...

player of 1956 to 1958,

Anthony Pollard Anthony or Tony Pollard may refer to: * Anthony Pollard (British Army officer) (born 1937), British Army major general * A. J. Pollard (Anthony James Pollard, born 1941), British medieval historian * Tony Pollard (archaeologist) (born 1965), Britis ...

. Roy's brother, David, crossed codes to play rugby union. A member of the first post-war sports tour to Japan with Oxford University in 1951, he scored the only try of the 1952 varsity match, and went on to captain North Wales.

References

External links

Profile
at Dewsbury Heroes {{DEFAULTSORT:Pollard, Roy 1927 births 2012 deaths Dewsbury Rams players Doncaster R.L.F.C. players England national rugby league team players English rugby league players English rugby union players Great Britain national rugby league team players Huddersfield R.U.F.C. players Rugby league players from Wakefield Rugby league wingers Rugby union players from Wakefield Wakefield RFC players Wakefield Trinity players 20th-century English sportsmen