By Ken Roberts
On Thursday 13 August Salford City Roosters club captain Richard Openshaw, 35, announced his retirement from the game, ending a 21 year association with the club.
I can trace Richards Richard’s career with us back to the 1994-95 season when he starred in our under 15’s. he did spend a period away from the club but returned to make his ‘A’ team debut at scrum half in a 18-20 defeat away to Saddleworth Rangers ‘A’ on 5th November 2005, when he scored 2 tries. Tries in his next two ‘A’ team games saw him promoted to the NCL team and he made his debut as a substitute in a 16-22 home league defeat to Leigh East on 3rd December, 2005.
Richard was a consistent performer for the club over the next 10 years with his versatility seeing him playing half back, loose forward and just about every other position in the early years, but he really started to make people take notice when he made the hooker position his own. One of the worst leg breaks ever seen on the Moat hall pitch would have ended the careers of a lot of players but Richard came back stronger, so much so that a couple of years back he was selected to captain the NCL Eagles squad over in France.
In his time with the club Richard is the 8th top appearance maker with 182 and has scored 57 tries and he is second in the list of man of the match awards with 34.
