Terence "Tez" Dennis Jason O'Connor (born 13 October 1971) is a 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 and commentator for

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

. A

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 ...

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 ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

international and Lancashire representative or , he played his club rugby for English clubs

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

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 ...

and

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 census had a population of 61,464. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the northern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form th ...

Background

O'Connor was born in

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 Lancash ...

, England. He was picked up from local Widnes side St Marie's after also playing for Widnes Tigers. He is a former

BARLA The British Amateur Rugby League Association (BARLA) is an association for social and recreational rugby league. It works jointly with the Rugby Football League through the RFL Community Board. History BARLA was created in 1973 in Huddersfiel ...

international and toured New Zealand with them in 1991. Also on the tour was

Darren Fleary Darren Fleary (born 2 December 1972) is an English former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s, and Coach (sports), coach. He played at representative level for Great Britain national rugby league team, Great B ...

, Paul Anderson and

Barrie McDermott Barrie "Baz" McDermott (born 22 July 1972) is a former professional rugby league footballer who played as a in the 1990s and 2000s. A Great Britain international representative , he played his club football at Oldham ( Heritage № 970), the ...

, all of whom went on to gain full international honours.

Professional playing career

Salford

In 1990 Terry signed for

, and played for them for three years. He had the opportunity of signing for Wigan, St Helens, Warrington, Leeds and Bradford, but chose Salford as his childhood hero

Steve O'Neill Stephen Francis O'Neill (July 6, 1891 – January 26, 1962) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher, most notably with the Cleveland Indians. As a manager, he led the Detroit Tig ...

was part of the coaching team, along with

Kevin Tamati Kevin Ronald Tamati (born 21 September 1953) is a New Zealand former rugby league representative player and coach. He played at representative level for New Zealand, New Zealand Māori, Auckland, Central Districts and Wellington, and professio ...

. He was awarded Salford's young player of the year in 1991. He played in the Regal Trophy quarter-final against Wigan at

the Willows The Willows may refer to: Places * The Willows, El Paso, Texas, USA * The Willows, Queensland, a town in Australia * The Willows, Salford, home of Salford Rugby League club in Salford, England, UK * The Willows, Saskatoon, a residential community ...

, and was awarded the Man-of-the-Match. He joined

in 1994 for a Salford record transfer fee of £95,000 and New Zealand International Sam Panapa. Salford also got a further £10,000 when Terry played for Great Britain.

Wigan

Whilst at Wigan he went on to win the Challenge Cup, Charity Shield, Regal Trophy, Premiership,

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

. Terry O'Connor played right-, in

's 25–16 victory over St. Helens in the 1995–96 Regal Trophy Final during the 1994–95 season at

Alfred McAlpine Stadium Kirklees Stadium (currently known due to naming rights, sponsorship as the John Smith's Stadium) is a multi-use stadium in Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, England. Since 1994, it has been the home ground of Association football, football club ...

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

on Saturday 13 January 1996. He made his début for Great Britain team in 1996 on the South Pacific tour. O'Connor played for Wigan at prop forward in their

1998 Super League Grand Final The 1998 JJB Super League Grand Final was the first staging of the Super League Grand Final and the conclusive and championship-deciding game of 1998's Super League III, and the first Grand Final of the Super League era. It was held on Saturday 2 ...

victory against Leeds. O'Connor played for the

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 ...

at prop forward in their

2000 Super League Grand Final The 2000 Super League Grand Final was the third official Grand Final and the conclusive and championship-deciding game of 2000's Super League V. Held on Saturday 14 October 2000 at Old Trafford, Manchester, the game was played between St. Helens ...

loss against St. Helens. In his time at Wigan, O'Connor played 317 first grade game and was voted into the Wigan and Super League team of the decade. He was a mainstay of the Wigan pack for a decade and enjoyed a testimonial in 2004 for his services to Wigan. Terry donated part of his testimonial money to under privileged children, which allowed them to go on holiday to Euro-Disney back in November 2004. In the history of Wigan RLFC, only 27 players have worn the Cherry and White top more than him. Terry was also named in the SL dream team on 4 occasions in 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 and was also named in the SL team of the decade between 1996 and 2006. O'Connor was also the 1st prop forward to be named on 4 occasions in the dream team.

Widnes

O'Connor joined his hometown club the

Widnes Vikings The Widnes Vikings are an English rugby league club in Widnes, Cheshire, which competes in the Betfred Championship. The club plays home matches at the Halton Stadium. Founded as Widnes Football Club, they are one of the original twenty-two r ...

at the end of the 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 captained the side in 2005 but with the introduction of

Catalans Dragons The Catalans Dragons (French: ''Dragons Catalans'', Catalan: ''Dracs Catalans'') are a professional rugby league club from Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales department, France. The team competes in the Super League and are the only team from outs ...

to Super League in 2006 meant that the team who finished 11th were to be relegated, and it was the Widnes Vikings who finished in 11th position, ahead of the Leigh Centurions who finished in 12th position. Terry played on for one more year in the National League for the Widnes Vikings and got to play his last competitive game in the Grand Final only to be beaten by

Hull Kingston Rovers Hull Kingston Rovers are a professional rugby league club based in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England, that competes in the Super League, the top tier of British rugby league. The club has won five league championships, and one Challen ...

. He was also joined in his last year by his good friend

they both retired in 2006. O'Connor went on to represent

at the 2000 Rugby League World Cup, and went on to captain Ireland on numerous occasion. The side earned fabulous reviews under the guidance of Terry and his best friend Barrie McDermott. O'Connor also represented

in the Origin Series in 2001 and 2002 and never lost against arch rivals;

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

. He was awarded the Roy Powell Medal for his performance in the 2001 series. O'Connor retired from Great Britain in 2002 with 15 caps. On 25 March 2004 O'Connor was one of six footballers inducted into

Rugby League Ireland Rugby League Ireland (RLI) is the internationally recognised governing body for the development of rugby league football in Ireland, having secured official recognition from the RLIF in 2000. It is recognised within the Irish Sports Council a ...

's inaugural Hall of Fame at the

Rugby League Heritage Centre The Rugby League Heritage Centre was formerly located in the basement of the George Hotel, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. It was the first rugby league heritage museum and was significantly influenced by Sky Sports presenter and former Gr ...

Post playing

After retiring from playing the game in 2006 O'Connor took on the role of Sporting Director at

along with his role at

, appearing in light-hearted features with

as well as serving as a pundit for the coverage of lower-league games. O'Connor is still heavily involved in charity work for former players and local under privileged children. In 2017, O'Connor replaced the retiring Mike "Stevo" Stephenson on commentary for Super League on Sky Sports.

References

External links

Great Britain Statistics at englandrl.co.uk
statistics currently missing due to not having appeared for both Great Britain, and England
Terry O'Connor Statistics at wigan.rlfans.com

Veteran O'Connor to call it quits
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:OConnor, Terry 1971 births Living people British sports broadcasters English people of Irish descent English rugby league commentators English rugby league players English television presenters Great Britain national rugby league team players Ireland national rugby league team captains Ireland national rugby league team players Lancashire rugby league team players Rugby league players from Widnes Rugby league props Rugby league second-rows Salford Red Devils players Widnes Vikings players Wigan Warriors players