Leeds Rhinos Nostalgia: How Widnes’ bruising tactics failed to derail Leeds on this day in 1982

That season, Leeds instead played Widnes on December 28 in a JP Trophy semi-final at Huddersfield’s old Fartown ground.

Controversially, the tie, 38 years ago today, kicked off at 12.30pm to fit in with live television coverage on the BBC and, typically for Leeds’ games against Widnes at the time, it was a hard-fought encounter.

“Bruising” was the description used for a clash which, nowadays, would almost certainly have led to multiple red cards and subsequent long bans.

That was a different era, but even so, during his television commentary, Ray French singled out Widnes’ hard man New Zealand forward Kevin Tamati.

“He has had what you could call an interesting game,” French said. “I know he is an amateur boxer, he has certainly put some practice in on one or two of these Leeds forwards – I hope [former British heavyweight champion] Joe Bugner is not watching!”

In front of 7,241 spectators, the Loiners survived some tough moments to pick up an 8-2 win, all the game’s points coming from penalty goals.

Leeds’ big prop Roy Dickinson was named man of the match and they had a hero in 18-year-old Mark Conway, who was surprisingly selected at scrum-half in place of the club’s leading points scorer Kevin Dick.

The tone was set early on when Leeds’ veteran stand-off John Holmes took an elbow to the face after passing the ball.

Conway dropped his penalty attempt just under the bar, the first of three misses before he eventually found the target.

Widnes went ahead in the first half through a Mick Burke kick after Leeds had been caught offside in front of their posts. The full-back then missed with a long-range effort following a foul by Kevin Rayne – who was punched in the face by one opponent and then kicked by another Widnes man in retaliation.

Conway, a left-footed kicker, levelled the scores with his first goal and edged Leeds ahead on the stroke of half-time, before extending their advantage to 6-2 early in the second period.

The youngster completed the scoring with his fourth successful kick, but it took a superb tackle by Neil Hague and David Ward to keep Mick Adams out at the other end and then Conway seemed to be tripped by Burke, but referee Stan Wall waved play on.

After the game, Ward created headlines when he accused Widnes of foul play.

It was only the second time Leeds had reached the final of the JP competition, which they previously won in 1973.

They went on to lose 15-4 to Wigan in the following month’s decider at Elland Road.

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