It’s been three years in the making but sculptor Stephen Winterburn is nearly ready to unveil a statue to rugby league greats at Wembley.
The bronze monument depicts three players with Salford connections: Gus Risman, Alex Murphy and Martin Offiah.
Wigan legends Eric Ashton and Billy Boston complete the set.
It’ll go on show this Saturday 29 August before Leeds Rhinos kick-off against Hull KR in the Challenge Cup final.
“I’ll be speechless when the statue is unveiled,” said Winterburn.
“Even now, with the statue finished, there’s still some stress with the logistics and all sorts of stuff to pull this thing off, which will make it hard to enjoy.
“Once it’s unveiled, it will probably take a day for it to sink in and think, ‘wow, we’ve done a good job here’. But it’s not about my work – it’s about what it means to the people.”
Stephen Winterburn welding in his East Yorkshire studio
Gus Risman is perhaps Salford’s most famous player of all time.
Born in Cardiff in 1911, he signed with Salford at the age of 18.
A popular centre or stand-off, he was made captain and led the Willows side out at Wembley against Barrow in 1938 for Salford’s only ever victory in the Challenge Cup.
He was inducted into the Rugby League Hall of Fame in 1988.
Alex Murphy OBE was Salford’s head coach for two years from May 1978 to November 1980.
After playing spells for St Helens and Leigh, he was still considered one of the best half-backs ever to grace a rugby league field.
His time at Salford was not so high-profile, sadly, as the team was in decline after the successes of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Speed demon Martin Offiah joined Salford for two seasons in 2000 and 2001. He will be especially remembered for a wonderful swerve move at Wembley against Leeds fullback Alan Tait to score a try which still gets repeat viewings today.
The sculptor admitted the artwork was not easy to complete.
“We had a few issues,” said Winterburn.
“The design, and the way it was working with the mouldings of the legends were troubling.
“But to do it in the time that we’ve done it has worked out quite well, to be fair.
“Working with Alex, Billy and Martin, who came to the studios quite a few times, and the Ashton family and the Rismans has been great.
“They’ve been coming up to the studio a lot to take a look at it and Martin is just blown away by his own sculpture, as are Billy and Alex and the families of Eric and Gus.
“In 20 or 30 years’ time, the statue will still be there as a monument to Rugby League for everyone to see how important these legends are to the great game.”
