Leeds Rhinos and RFL mourn Hall of Fame member Bev Risman after death aged 85

A minute’s silence will be held before tonight’s (Friday’s) Betfred Super League fixture between Rhinos and Huddersfield Giants at Headingley, with players wearing black armbands as a mark of respect.

Son of rugby league legend Gus Risman, Bev spent five seasons with Leeds - from February, 1966 to February, 1970 - scoring 20 tries and 611 goals in 162 appearances. His points tally of 1,282 is the sixth-highest for the club.

Risman, a full-back played rugby union for England and British Lions before switching codes to join Leigh in March, 1961.

He kicked four goals in Leeds’ 1968 Watersplash Challenge Cup final win over Wakefield Trinity and captained Great Britain in that year’s World Cup final.

He added four more successful kicks when Leeds beat Castleford in the following year’s Championship final, but his career was brought to an end by a knee injury in 1970.

A member of Leeds' Hall of Fame, he was later heavily involved with rugby league in London and the south, initially as a development officer, then as manager at Fulham and a director of London Broncos.

He was the figurehead for the Student Rugby League as it developed in the 1980s and 1990s and was elected President of the RFL in 2010.

He joined the sport’s Roll of Honour in 2005, and was awarded the OBE in 2012 for services to rugby league.

RFL chief executive Tony Sutton said: “On behalf of the RFL and the sport, we send condolences to Bev Risman’s family and friends and we pay tribute to a man who made such a contribution to both codes of rugby as a player, and to rugby league in such a range of roles after his retirement.”