Cliff Watson

Who is Cliff Watson?

Clifford H. Watson is a former rugby league footballer of the 1960s and '70s. He played for the St. Helens rugby football club in the English Rugby Football League Championship and later the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership in Australia. His position of choice while playing was at prop-forward. Along with hardman Ken Gee and legendary captain Alan Prescott, he remains one of the best Great Britain frontrowers ever.

Watson originally played amateur rugby union in England for Dudley Kingswinford in the West Midlands competition before answering a St. Helens club advertisement for "top class Rugby Union forwards". A trial was arranged and in 1960 he was signed to the club for £750 initially and then a further £750 after he had completed six first grade games for the club. However his career first started to gain momentum after the 1961 Rugby League Challenge Cup final against Wigan; in front of 95,000 fans Watson's defence was instrumental in helping his club gain a 12-6 victory over their rivals and helped keep Cliff a permanent fixture in the team line-up for the next ten years.

After playing out eleven seasons for St.