Tributes paid to former Leeds Rhinos' winger Wilf Rosenberg

The South African was a Springbok international before switching codes to join Leeds in 1959.

Combining playing with studying dentistry at Leeds University, he scored 73 tries in 81 appearances and was a member of the first Leeds team to win the Championship, in 1961.

Known as the Flying Dentist, he scored 44 tries that season which is still Leeds’ post-war record. His centre Derek Hallas recalls a great player and close friend. Hallas said: “He was such a nice guy. When he came over he was a centre and we also had Lewis [Jones] and Gordon Brown. I was thinking where am I going to play? But he was put on the wing and we just hit it off.

“He always knew where he was, he would never run inside or anything like that. He was a terrific finisher and for a man of his size he was one of the bravest I ever played with.”

Rosenberg’s most famous try for Leeds was his last, a spectacular dive which clinched victory over St Helens in the 1961 Championship semi-final at Headingley.

He joined Hull for a £5,750 fee in the 1961-62 season and touched down 42 times in 86 games for the Airlie Birds before returning to South Africa.

Rosenberg was born in Cape Town, but raised in Sydney. He returned with his family to South Africa when he was 14 and played three Tests against the British Lions in 1955.

He toured Australia and New Zealand with the Springboks in 1956 and was capped against France two years later. He was on honeymoon when a deal was agreed with Leeds so his registration form was signed by his father, Rabbi Philip Rosenberg - though that was ruled invalid by the Rugby Football League.

“The try he scored against Saints was fabulous,” Hallas recalled. “He has the best winger I played with. When you gave him the ball, if he could finish, he would.”

A member of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, he worked as a rugby journalist and boxing promoter in South Africa, then moved to Israel where he died in hospital following a stroke.