Dai Watkins, a magnet for every hit-man in north

DAVID Watkins used to be fond of telling two anecdotes from his bruising initiation into Rugby League. Typically, each tale would be told not as an exercise in self-aggrandisement but in self-deprecation.

- PETER JACKSON

After a winning home debut for Salford, the next fixture exposed the coalminer's son to Workington Town where the heavy mob took it in turn to run him over. As their victim picked himself up from the third painful experience, a spectator shouted out at the top of his voice: "Hey, Watkins.

Next time, try hitting 'em with your wallet." His status in October 1967 as the most expensive Union convert to League in a deal worth £16,000 more than - £300,000 by today's values - made him a magnet for every hit-man in the north of England aggrieved to learn that a Welsh 'midget' was being paid so much when they were getting so little.

Watkins knew, of course, that such a fortune would come at a price, most probably in the shape of a stiff-arm tackle. It arrived all too soon, whereupon the assailant made no attempt to disguise the motivation behind the brutality. "Now, then," he said, standing over his flattened victim. "Twinkle, twinkle little star, if you ******* can."