Obituary: Irish wing ace Sean Quinlan dies

Sean Quinlan is second from the left

Former Oldham Rugby League Club winger Sean Quinlan, who was part of the Watersheddings scene in the boom days of the late 1950s, has died aged 83.

A big-name signing, he had played four times for Ireland in Rugby Union and was being tracked by several top League clubs.

Despite cruel luck with injuries, the then 24-year-old Irishman was a popular member of the Oldham squad at a time when wingers were the sport's pin-up boys, among them the Roughyeds trio of John Etty, Dick Cracknell and Ike Southward.

Quinlan had joined a club, league champions in 1957, that was famed for its brand of open, attacking rugby, but his ambitions in his new code were dashed by a run of knee injuries in an Oldham career that spanned three seasons.

He was restricted to 11 first-team games - eight of them outside that prince of centres Alan Davies and the other three partnered by Vinny Nestor.

He made his debut on 22 November 1958 in a 13-12 League Championship win against Leeds at Watersheddings and then played in two more games over Christmas, scoring the first of his four tries for the club in a 14-14 draw at Hunslet.

A serious knee injury at Parkside, in only his third first-team game, kept him out until the following season whereupon he scored his second try in the first game, a 27-12 home win against Leeds. A recurrence of the injury kept him out for another three weeks, but he returned to action in a 43-9 win against Hunslet at Watersheddings - and promptly scored two more tries.

In his next game against Warrington he suffered damage to his other knee - an injury that sidelined him again until the start of the 1960-61 season.

After corrective surgery, he played in the first five games of that season against top teams such as St Helens, Warrington, Leeds, Wigan and Leigh, but then one of his knees failed again.

Brian Walker of the Oldham RL Heritage Trust, writing in his book 'Roughyeds - The Story', said of Quinlan: "It would have been easy for him (at that stage) to pack his bags and return home to Ireland, but he didn't. He persevered with knee-strengthening exercises, but eventually had to undergo a second operation which was again unsuccessful. Only then did he throw in the towel."

The condolences of chairman Chris Hamilton, head coach Scott Naylor, staff, players and supporters young and old at the present-day Oldham club, together with those of the Oldham RL Heritage Trust and the Oldham Players' Association are sent across the Irish Sea to the Quinlan family.