David Lyon (born 3 September 1965) is an English former professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

and

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

footballer who played as a for

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an Industrial city, industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census had a population of 61,464. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it is on t ...

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

, St Helens,

Sheffield Eagles The Sheffield Eagles are a professional rugby league club that play in the Championship (rugby league), Betfred Championship. The club play their home games at the Olympic Legacy Park (OLP) on the former site of Don Valley Stadium, their forme ...

and the

Leigh Centurions The Leigh Leopards are a professional rugby league club based in Leigh, Greater Manchester, England, who compete in the Betfred Super League. The club was founded in 1878, and is one of the original twenty-two clubs that formed the Northern R ...

. He switched to rugby union in 1996 and finished his playing career with Orrell. He is the son of Geoff Lyon the former Wigan RLFC great who played at Wigan from 1959 to 1969.

Playing career

Widnes

Lyon started his professional rugby league career with

, joining the club from amateur side

Wigan St Patricks Wigan St. Patricks is an amateur rugby league football club based in the Scholes area of Wigan, Greater Manchester. The first team plays in the National Conference League Division One . In 1986, the club was one of ten founder members of the BA ...

in September 1983. He made his debut for the club on

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in 1983, starting at in place of the injured Mick Burke.

Warrington

Lyon signed for

in August 1987. The transfer fee was set at £12,500 by an independent tribunal after the two clubs failed to agree a fee. Lyon played (replaced by interchange/ substitute Paul Darbyshire on 34-minutes) in

's 24–16 victory over

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, wh ...

in the

1989 Lancashire Cup File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker run ...

Final during the 1989–90 season at

Knowsley Road Knowsley Road in Eccleston, St Helens, Merseyside, was the home ground of St. Helens from 1890 until its closure in 2010. St Helens Town FC played their home fixtures at Knowsley Road from 2002 until 2010. For a period, the venue also hosted ...

, St. Helens on Saturday 14 October 1989. He also played and scored a

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in Warrington's 14–36 defeat by

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

in the

1990 Challenge Cup Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since the ...

Final at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

, London on Saturday 28 April 1990, in front of a crowd of 77,729. Lyon played , and scored four

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s in

's 12–2 victory over

Bradford Northern The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is predomi ...

in the 1990–91 Regal Trophy Final during the 1990–91 season at

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Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

on Saturday 12 January 1991.

St Helens

In September 1992, Lyon was signed by St Helens for a estimated fee of £90,000. Lyon played in St Helens' 10–4 victory over

in the 1992–93 Premiership Final during the 1992–93 season at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...

, Manchester on Sunday 16 May 1993.

Representative career

Lyon was selected for the 1990 Great Britain Lions tour to

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. He also represented

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

in the 1991 War of the Roses.

Rugby union

Lyon switched to rugby union in 1996 when the game went professional playing for Orrell as a

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics * Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...

until 1999. He Captained the side in the first year of the professional premiership and lead them to Lancashire Cup glory. He was selected to play for The North of England v NZ All Blacks.

Coaching career

Once his playing days were over David went into coaching and was Head junior coach at both St Helens and Wigan Warriors. He was assistant coach to his ex teammate Mike Gregory in 2002 when they created history by coaching England Academy to the first ever victory over Australian Schoolboys on British soil. He then took over as Head coach of England Academy in 2004 and lead them to create more history on the tour to NZ and Australia by beating Australian Schoolboys for the first time ever on Australian soil. David then joined Brian Noble as his assistant coach to Great Britain Rugby League and was part of the 2006 Tri Nations in Australia and NZ where Great Britain beat Australia for the first time in 30 years in Sydney, Australia. He is currently the Assistant Director for Environment and Housing at Wigan Council.

References

External links

Statistics at widnes.tvStatistics at thisiswarrington.co.ukProfile at saints.org.ukProfile at rugby.statbunker.comStatistics at thisiswarrington.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyon, David 1965 births Living people English rugby league players English rugby union players Great Britain under-21 national rugby league team players Lancashire rugby league team players Leigh Leopards players Orrell R.U.F.C. players Rugby league fullbacks Rugby league players from Wigan Rugby union centres Rugby union players from Wigan Sheffield Eagles (1984) players St Helens R.F.C. players Warrington Wolves players Widnes Vikings players