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| Born | (1960-12-15)15 December 1960 (age 64) St Helens, Lancashire, England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Position | Stand-off, Scrum-half | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Neil Holding (born 15 December 1960) is an English former professionalrugby league footballer who played in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, andcoached in the 1990s. He played at representative level forGreat Britain,England andLancashire, and at club level forSt Helens,Oldham andRochdale Hornets, as astand-off orscrum-half,[1] and coached at club level forRochdale Hornets.[2]
Holding made his debut forSt Helens in October 1977 againstSwinton.
Holding playedscrum-half in St Helens' 7–13 defeat byWidnes in the1978 BBC2 Floodlit Trophy Final during the1978–79 season atKnowsley Road,St Helens on Tuesday 12 December 1978.
Holding playedscrum-half in St Helens 0–16 defeat byWarrington in the1982 Lancashire Cup Final during the1982–83 season atCentral Park,Wigan on Saturday 23 October 1982, and playedscrum-half in the 28–16 victory overWigan in the1984 Lancashire Cup Final during the1984–85 season atCentral Park,Wigan on Sunday 28 October 1984.
Holding playedscrum-half in St Helens' 18–19 defeat byHalifax in the1987 Challenge Cup Final during the1986–87 season atWembley Stadium,London on Saturday 2 May 1987.
Holding playedscrum-half, and scored adrop goal in St Helens' 15–14 victory overLeeds in the1987–88 John Player Special Trophy Final during the1987–88 season atCentral Park,Wigan on Saturday 9 January 1988.
In September 1990, Holding was signed byRochdale Hornets for a fee of £50,000.[4] In February 1991, he was appointed asplayer-coach at Rochdale.[5] Following the club's relegation from the First Division at the end of the1990–91 season, he was replaced as coach by Stan Gittins.[6]
In August 1991, he was signed byOldham in exchange forBrett Clark andRonnie Duane.[7]
Holding won onecap forEngland while at St Helens in 1980 against Wales, and woncaps forGreat Britain while at St Helens on the1984 Lions tour against Australia (3 matches) and New Zealand.
After retiring from rugby league, Holding worked as a groundsman at St Helens. In 1998, he left the club to take up a similar role atLiverpool football club.[8] He worked at Liverpool until 2014, when he left the club to set up his own gardening business.[9]
Neil Holding is aSt Helens R.F.C. Hall of Fame inductee.[10]