Written by Mike Carter, Hull KR Shirts
I have to start this piece with an acknowledgement to Bryan and Jonathon Leason. The lifelong Robins have provided me with the stats to be able to write this piece. The workings out were completed a few years ago as part of a presentation for a Hull KR Foundation Heritage Evening, and Bryan and Jonathon have been kind enough to share them with me to share with you all.
This all started with the decision to reinstate the number 6 shirt at Hull KR. It got me thinking! Should it have been retired in the first place? I fully understand why it was done, and I didn’t even question it when it happened over 8 and a half years ago. In this article, I will provide you with the stats for Roger’s career at Hull KR and you can decide at the end what your take is after considering the numbers!
In 2019, I became highly interested in the Heritage of Hull KR, and through this, I have met many like-minded people with knowledge for Hull Kingston Rovers that I can only dream of. Two of those people are Bryan and Jonathon. Since 2021, I have also somewhat become a bit of an unofficial statistician by keeping my own up-to-date log of player appearances and the points they score. Within my trackers is the possibility to track what positions each player started in, in each game. Now, this goes beyond the level of time that I can dedicate to organising this information. However, Jonathon Leason did just this for our greatest ever player!
What comes next took Jonathon an incredible amount of time to collate, so any credit for this piece must go to him. I am purely just the messenger with a bag full of stats about the great man, Roger Millward. Buckle in!
A career in numbers!
Roger Millward played 406 times for Hull KR over a 14-year playing career, and his stats are simply brilliant. Millward won 268 of his 406 games, giving him an excellent win ratio of 66% when playing for Hull Kingston Rovers. Roger Millward scored 207 tries, giving him an average of (about) a try every other game. Some games were more giving though, as Millward completed 11 hat-tricks and 29 braces, along with scoring a single try on 116 occasions. That means Roger dotted the ball down for at least one try in 156 of his Hull KR appearances. Unsurprisingly, Millward holds the Club Record for the most tries for Hull Kingston Rovers.
Not only was he good at dotting the ball down, but he was also an excellent goal kicker, with 597 goals to his name. 10 drop goals can also be added to his personal collection with the boot, too!
Roger made his debut for Hull Kingston Rovers on 15th August 1966 in a 28-11 victory over Hunslet, where he started at stand-off and partnered with Mike Stephenson as his scrum-half. This pair took to the field on 39 occasions. This was the first of Millward’s 406 first grade appearances that then culminated with the Challenge Cup Final in 1980, where Roger, at stand-off partnered with Allan Agar (at scrum-half) as Hull Kingston Rovers lifted their only Challenge Cup to date after a 10-5 victory over Hull FC at Wembley Stadium. Roger played in the halves and partnered Allan Agar on 43 occasions. 39 of those came with Millward as the stand-off and 4 with Agar at #6.
As you continue reading, you will find a full list of the positions and half-back partners that paired up with Roger Millward.
During his career, Roger played 284 games at stand-off, in the number 6 shirt. This equates to about 70% of his appearances. The other 122 games came in different positions and subsequently a different shirt number. Is 70% of games enough to warrant the retirement of a number? I will let you decide on that one.
How many different positions did Roger Millward play at Hull Kingston Rovers?
As just mentioned, Roger played 284 games at stand-off for Hull KR, but what other positions did he line up in? Roger actually started games in 2 other positions alongside stand-off and scrum half in his career. He started 2 games at full-back in 1977 and 1 game at right centre in 1969. Now because he was listed there on the team sheet doesn’t necessarily mean that he played position for the full game (or even at all), but we can only work with the evidence that we have.
Millward’s second most familiar position was scrum-half, and he donned the number 7 shirt on 112 different occasions, mostly in the later stages of his career. That leaves just 7 appearances to account for, and those all came from the substitute bench, likely in shirt number 14. Substitutes/Interchanges were introduced into Rugby League in 1964 and compromised of two players before expanding to four in 1996.
Millward’s 406 appearances wasn’t enough to take him to the top of the overall appearances list for Hull Kingston Rovers. At the time of his retirement, he was behind Jack Spammer (445), Johnny Moore (433) and Laurie Osbourne (431). Thank you to Sean Dickens for this information. However, he does hold the record for most international appearances whilst on the books at Hull KR with 47.
Club Honours (1966-1980)
During Millward’s playing career, Hull Kingston Rovers won the Championship in 1978/79. Roger played 32 games (in all competitions) in the 1978/79 season, scoring 11 tries, converting 38 goals and kicking 2 drop goals. He finished as second (111 points) in the points scoring that season behind Steve Hubbard (123 points).
The following season, in 1979/80, in the final game of the season, Hull Kingston Rovers defeated Hull FC to win the Challenge Cup. This would turn out to be Roger’s final first grade game for Hull KR, as Millward played on and finished the game with a broken jaw.
In 1981, Roger did attempt to make a return to rugby league, however in his first A team game back, he suffered another broken jaw, which was already becoming a reoccurring injury and took the decision to hang up his playing boots.
Other notable honours won by Roger Millward at Hull KR include the Yorkshire Cup in 1966/67, 1967/68, 1971/72 and 1974/75, as well as winning the BBC2 Floodlit Trophy in 1977/78.
I don’t think everyone, including me, realised how many games Roger Millward played at scrum-half for Hull KR. There will be supporters in the fanbase who were aware, but I think it is natural to assume that he played the entirety of his Hull Kingston Rovers career at stand-off and in the number 6 shirt. However, is this because the number 6 shirt was retired in Roger’s honour, or because Roger’s honour retired the number 6 shirt? Anyway, I’m finding myself in a little bit of a mole hole with overthinking this now, but I hope you’ve enjoyed the journey of education with me! I feel like I have learned loads.
Stats: A full round up
Individual Stats
Tries: 207
Single try games: 116
Double try games: 29
Hat-tricks: 11
Goals: 597
Drop goals: 10
Games:
Total: 406
Wins: 268
Home Games: 223
Home Wins: 181
Away Games: 174
Away Wins: 81
Neutral Venue Games: 9
Neutral Venue Wins: 6
Positions:
Full-back: 2 Games, 2 Wins, 6 Goals
Right-centre: 1 Game, 1 Win, 5 Goals
Stand-off: 284 Games, 189 Wins, 148 Tries, 456 Goals, 6 Drop Goals
Scrum-half: 112 Games, 72 Wins, 55 Tries, 130 Goals, 4 Drop Goals
Substitute: 7 Games, 4 Wins, 4 Tries
With Roger at Stand-off: (People who played as his scrum-half)
Colin Cooper = 59 Games
Terry Hudson = 52 Games
Mike Stephenson = 39 Games
Allan Agar = 39 Games
Arthur Bunting = 32 Games
Paul Daley = 24 Games
Carl Dooler = 15 Games
David Elliott = 7 Games
Brian Pinkney = 6 Games
Roy Gay = 6 Games
Paul Harkin = 2 Games
Steve Nuttall = 1 Game
Asher Moran = 1 Game
Brian Brook = 1 Game
With Roger at Scrum-half: (People who played as his stand-off)
Steve Hartley = 75 Games
Glyndwr Turner = 25 Games
Alan Burwell = 5 Games
Allan Agar = 4 Games
Bernard Watson = 1 Game
David Hall = 1 Game
Mike Smith = 1 Game
When you break it down, Roger Millward played more games at stand-off than scrum-half, but I would imagine that the partnership of Hartley at #6 and Millward at #7 during the 1970s is one that supporters remember fondly. Roger played more games at #7 with Steve Hartley, then he played with any one player in the #6 shirt himself…
Our Greatest Ever..?
Many believe Roger Millward to be the greatest ever player to play rugby league for Hull Kingston Rovers, and it is easy to see why. In this piece, we have only really covered the numbers. External to the numbers is majestic plays and visions that can not be replicated into words. Words just don’t deliver enough justice to how amazing a player Roger was.
Naturally, all I have seen is video highlights, but I have heard some great stories from people who I am proud to now call friends about how truly special Roger Millward was as a player, a coach and a person!
In response to “our greatest ever..?” The joy is that we can all have an opinion where no one is truly right or wrong.
Up the Robins!
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