How French landed in hot water

'Half a crown. I always claim half a crown,' replied Ashcroft.

The ticket had actually cost him 1s 10d, around 31/2p less in today's terms, but with a few cups of tea and biccies thrown in, half a crown, 121/2p, seemed reasonable enough.

After helping his pack shove and jump against the French in what turned out to be an honourable draw, the unsuspecting student was then exposed to the heaviest tackle of the day from a nonplaying member of his own side.

'A chap who was called Carston Cathceside (chairman of selectors) came up to me and said, "Frenchî, they never called you by your first name and "Mrî was out of the question.

'"Frenchî, he said, "I'm looking at your expenses. You've claimed half a crown and as far as I know, the return fare from St Helens to Liverpool is 1s 10dî. I had to give him 8d back.'

Forty years on and Ray French has been summoned to Twickenham once more, as the voice of league to commentate on the 100th Challenge Cup final between Bradford Bulls and his native St Helens.

Forty years ago, there would have been a better chance of Fidel Castro kicking a ball around the White House lawn with JFK.

Even one as enlightened as French (' I love rugby union, although I prefer rugby league') found it a culture shock. He said: 'For a northern lad, Twickenham was a wonderful moment but it was also totally different socially to anything I had experienced.

'There was a real north- south class divide in those days, so much so that you were a bit self-conscious about it.

'We were asked to fill in a form listing our hobbies so they could be

included in the pen pictures for the programme. My hobbies were rugby league and darts. I thought, "Crikey, if I put that down, I'll never play in the next matchî.

'So instead I put my hobbies as skiing and squash. I'd never played squash in my life and I'd never skied but they sounded up-market so I put them down.

'I didn't even know rugby union existed until I went to Cowley School at the age of 11.' The old amateur game used to wreak fearful retribution on anyone daring to take the league shilling.

French turned professional with Widnes the season after his four matches for England and went on to play for Great Britain at league. He was later banned from coaching St Helens union team while being free to coach the game at Cowley School which he did for 32 years.

His fate, though, was not as bad as some, like George Parsons who was travelling with the Welsh to Paris for an international when the WRU threw him off the train at Newport station because they suspected he had been talking to a League club.

Imagine what they would have done to him had it been more than mere suspicion.

League professionals, Alex Murphy included, were evicted from union clubhouses for fear that they would pollute the pure Corinthian atmosphere and, while some clubs in Wales would turn a blind eye, it did not stop their union denying first David Watkins, then Jonathan Davies, access to Cardiff Arms Park to work for the BBC.

They will have a chuckle to themselves at the sight of league's showpiece kicking off in a union shrine, a neat business arrangement given that league does not have a large enough stadium of its own and the RFU has an overdraft running into millions.

For those with a sense of history about the 19th-Century split over broken- time payment behind league's creation, this will be a symbolic occasion.

French said: 'League was considered a bastard prodigy, kicked out of the back door by its forefathers in

1895. Now it's coming back through the front door, a vindication of what my ancestors went through. We're coming home and I'm thrilled to be doing the commentary.'

He will not be taking advantage of the occasion to re- submit an expenses claim for those long-lost pennies. The RFU needs the money - to buy a few more rugby league players!