LAST weekend marked the start of the Rugby League World Cup but, for the wife of rugby legend Jim Challinor, the return of the rugby tournament to the UK is bittersweet.

“Jim would have been sitting next to me watching every game,” said his wife of 20 years Wendy Challinor. “He would have loved that it was back in England.”

Jim died in 1976 aged 42 from cancer leaving behind his wife Wendy and three children, Neil, Yvonne and Nadine.

“It all happened so quickly,” remembered Wendy, from Fearnhead. “One minute he was here and then the next he was gone.”

The former Warrington Wolves player, whose love of the game led him to a successful career both on and off the pitch, coached Great Britain to victory in the 1972 Rugby League World Cup in France.

“It was impossible to tell which he enjoyed more, playing or coaching. He just enjoyed everything about the game.”

Jim, who was known as ‘gentleman Jim’ because of his softly spoken nature, started his rugby career at Orford Rovers before turning professional at the age of 18.

The grandmother of eight said: “I used to go and watch the rugby with my dad when I was 10 so I didn’t mind going watching Jim play.”

Wendy, who met Jim at Crosfields dance when she was 15 and he was 16, spent her life cheering Jim on from the sidelines, first as a player for Warrington and Barrow and then as a coach at Barrow, St Helens, Liverpool City, Oldham and Great Britain.

The rugby player, who opened Challinor Sports on Padgate Lane in 1967, couldn’t wait to make his debut for Warrington alongside Brian Bevan.

“I remember before Jim’s first match as a professional player, Brian Bevan came up to him and gave him pages of notes with instructions about when to pass to him, when to do this and that.

“Jim was up all night studying them,” laughed Wendy. “Could you imagine that happening now?”

Jim, who played as a winger and a centre, could have seen his career take off in another different direction.

“He was asked to go for a trial at Manchester United,” remembered the 74-year-old. “He was just naturally good at all sports but rugby was where his heart was.”