Mickey Higham (born 18 September 1980) 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 11 ...

footballer who played as a in the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. He played for the Leigh Centurions in three separate spells in the Super League and

Betfred Championship The Championship, known as the Betfred Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a professional rugby league competition. It is the second-tier competition organised by the Rugby Football League, the governing body for the sport in England, ...

. Higham also played for St Helens,

Wigan Warriors The Wigan Warriors are a professional rugby league club in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the Super League. Formed in 1872 as Wigan Football Club, Wigan was a founding member of the Northern Rugby Football Union followin ...

and the

Warrington Wolves The Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league club based in Warrington, England, that competes in the Super League. They play rugby at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, having moved there from Wilderspool in 2004. Founded as Warrington ...

in the top flight. He played for both

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

at international level.

Background

Higham was born in

Billinge Higher End Higher End or Billinge Higher End is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. Governance Billinge was a civil parish lying within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire on 2 February 1837 it was divide ...

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the 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 north-east and Warrington t ...

Playing career

Leigh Centurions

Higham joined St Helens from

Leigh Leigh may refer to: Places In England Pronounced : * Leigh, Greater Manchester, Borough of Wigan ** Leigh (UK Parliament constituency) * Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Pronounced : * Leigh, Dorset * Leigh, Gloucestershire * Leigh, Kent * Leigh, Staf ...

in November 2000.

St Helens

Higham played for St. Helens from the interchange bench in their

2002 Super League Grand Final The 2002 Super League Grand Final was the Fifth official Grand Final and conclusive and championship-deciding game of Super League VII. Held on Saturday 19 October 2002 at Old Trafford, Manchester, the game was played between St. Helens and Brad ...

victory against

Bradford Bulls 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 predom ...

. Having won Super League VI, St Helens contested the

2003 World Club Challenge The 2003 World Club Challenge match was contested on Sunday, 16 February by National Rugby League season 2002 premiers, the Sydney Roosters and Super League VII premiers, St. Helens. 19,807 spectators turned out at Bolton's Reebok Stadium for the ...

against 2002 NRL Premiers,

Sydney Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won fifteen Ne ...

. Higham played from the interchange bench in Saints' 38–0 loss. He suffered an ankle injury which ruled him out of most of 2004's

Super League IX Tetley's Super League IX was the name of the 2004 Super League championship season due to sponsorship by Tetley's Bitter. This was the 110th season of top-level professional rugby league held in Britain, and the ninth championship decided by Super ...

. He'd made over 100 appearances for St Helens, scoring 33 tries.

Wigan Warriors

Higham joined

in October 2005 after a transfer deal involving three clubs, and fellow

Terry Newton Terry Newton (7 November 1978 – 26 September 2010) was an English professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He played at representative level for Great Britain, England and Lancashire, and at club level for the L ...

. Higham was unable to join Wigan directly as his club, St. Helens, would not sell. However,

stepped in and bought Higham from Saints for £70,000 and then immediately released him to Wigan. In exchange, Wigan allowed

to join Bradford. Higham signed a three-year deal with Wigan and commented: "It looked at one stage as though I would be playing next season at Bradford but when the opportunity to join Wigan came up at the last minute I jumped at it." At Wigan, Higham again teamed up with coach

Ian Millward Ian "Basil"/"Minibus" Millward (born 22 August 1960) is an Australian rugby league coach, occasional pundit and former player. Millward is now the assistant coach of St George Illawarra in the NRL Millward is the former head coach of Wigan, S ...

who he had played under at both Leigh and St Helens. Millward was however sacked by Wigan in April 2006 and Higham, ironically, was coached by Brian Noble who was Bradford coach at the time of the "three-club transfer". Higham's contract at Wigan was not renewed, and he subsequently signed for

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 ...

on a two-year deal.

Warrington Wolves

Higham enjoyed a successful spell with the Wolves making 174 appearances and was a fans favourite throughout his time at the club. Higham played in the 2010 Challenge Cup Final victory over the

Leeds Rhinos The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club was formed in 1870 as Leeds St John's and play in the Super League, the top tier of English rugby league. They have played home matches at Headin ...

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 original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002 to 2003. The stadium ...

. He played in the

2012 Challenge Cup Final The 2012 Challenge Cup Final was the 111th cup-deciding game of the rugby league 2012 Challenge Cup Season. It was held at Wembley Stadium in London on 25 August 2012, kick off 14:30. The final was contested by Leeds Rhinos and Warrington Wolves ...

victory over the

. He played in the

2012 Super League Grand Final The 2012 Super League Grand Final was the 15th official Grand Final and conclusive and championship-deciding match of the Super League XVII season. The match was held on Saturday 6 October 2012, at Old Trafford, Manchester, and was contested b ...

defeat by the

at Old Trafford. He played in the

2013 Super League Grand Final The 2013 Super League Grand Final was the 16th official Grand Final and conclusive and championship-deciding match of Super League XVIII. The game was held on Saturday 5 October 2013, at Old Trafford, Manchester, and was contested by Wigan Warri ...

defeat by the

at Old Trafford.

Leigh

Higham then returned to his first club

for £50,000 on 20 May 2015,. On 11 September 2019 Higham announced his retirement to join the Leigh coaching staff

International career

He made his

début in the

2004 Gillette Tri-Nations The second Rugby League Tri-Nations tournament (known as the Gillette (brand), Gillette Tri-Nations due to sponsorship) was contested between October 2004 in sports, 16 October and November 2004 in sports, 27 November of 2004 in sports, 2004. The f ...

against

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 ...

, after recovering from an ankle injury which ruled him out of most of 2004's

. In September 2008, he was named in the England training squad for the

2008 Rugby League World Cup The 2008 Rugby League World Cup was the thirteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup since its inauguration in 1954, and the first since the 2000 tournament. The tournament was held in Australia from 26 October, culminating in the final ...

, and in October 2008 he was named in the final 24-man

squad. He was named in the

team to face

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

at the

Keepmoat Stadium The Eco-Power Stadium (formerly known as Keepmoat Stadium) is a multi-purpose stadium in Doncaster, England, with a capacity of 15,231. It cost approximately £20 million to construct, as part of the wider Lakeside Sports Complex that i ...

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

, prior to England's departure for the

. He made his

début in the victory over

on 10 October 2008.

References

External links

Profile at leighrl.co.ukProfile at leighrl.co.uk
*(archived by web.archive.org
Profile at warringtonwolves.comProfile at saints.org.ukStatistics at rlfans.com
*(archived by web.archive.org
Profile at wiganwarriors.com
*(archived by web.archive.org
Higham and Calderwood Meet The Media (11 November 2005)
1980 births Living people Bradford Bulls players English rugby league players England national rugby league team players Great Britain national rugby league team players Leigh Centurions captains Leigh Centurions players Rugby league hookers Rugby league players from Billinge, Merseyside St Helens R.F.C. players Wigan Warriors players Warrington Wolves players {{England-rugbyleague-bio-stub