Book review

In his foreword to Paul Sculthorpe's autobiography 'Man of Steel', former St Helens chairman Eric Ashton tries to explain how the player, a rugby league superstar, remains an approachable and genuine man who is only to happy to help.

Ashton illustrates his point by recalling the time he needed someone at "very short notice" to turn up for a raffle at a major supermarket in Prescot.

The sentence had more than a touch of 'Phoenix Nights' about it and one friend of mine scoffed mockingly when I showed it to him.

But Ashton goes on to explain that Scully, as he is known to all in the game, turned up willingly and did not ask for a penny in return.

And for me the anecdote says something quite profound about the sport of rugby league and the men who play it.

It is a game that retains the sort of bond with the community that football surrendered many millions of pounds ago, while its star players are some of the most humble and unprepossessing sportsmen you could ever wish to meet.

Scully is very much in that bracket. He comes across as a polite and gentle man, off-the-field at least.

He still refers to his teachers as 'Sir' and seems fully aware of how good the game has been to him. And good it certainly has been.

A back-to-back Man of Steel winner who was, until recently, captain of his country, the loose-forward is a huge achiever.

Yet in his book there is a not inconsiderable sense of pride when he tells us that he was 21st in Lancashire Life's Fifty Greatest Living Lancastrians.

I also loved the fact that part of his prize for becoming Warrington Sports Personality of the Year in 1997 was a huge box of crisps and that leading the yellow-to-black snooker challenge on Soccer AM gave him a huge sense of pride.

And it is on this level that I think his autobiography works best, the times when we are treated to an insight about what Scully thinks about his career and what he is like as a person.

I want to know what has stuck in his mind, what has made him laugh and what has really failed to amuse him (thus causing him to punch Australian Craig Fitzgibbon several times even though they had always got on quite well).

This sort of detail tends to come in the second half of the book when the chapters aren't so much a chronological progression of his life.

The first half of the book, in contrast, seems to whizz through his career, which has largely been one success after another with the exception of his failure to play in a Great Britain side to clinch a series win over the Aussies.

Scully is hardly on his own in this regard, but I was pleased to see that it really rankles with him. It shows he cares.

However, the transition from schoolboy talent to a professional with Warrington and then on to St Helens, where he has enjoyed such huge success, seemed a little dry.

I also found myself lost several times as the book jumped about, back and forth, from one incident to another.

Perhaps I'm just a little slow on the uptake, but a few times I would have found it helpful to be told what year we were in.

However, my biggest issue with this book is the timing.

Tragically for Scully - and the game of rugby league in this country - we have hardly seen any of him on the pitch over the last few seasons because of a serious knee injury and now an Achilles problem.

Reading the book, it is clear that speculation he was finished in the game irritated him greatly and, at 29, he is adamant he has several good years ahead of him.

The book was put together as he recovered from injury. Scully, obviously, had the time to take stock of his career.

But if there are so many good years ahead, are we not reading an incomplete story?

Furthermore, Sculthorpe's sheer professionalism means the seam of material is not as rich as, say, Sean Long's might be.

Nonetheless, league fans will undoubtedly enjoy an inside glimpse into one of the finest players of his era and, arguably, the greatest team of Super League to date.

Whether the appeal will stretch far outside the league heartland I'm not so sure.

Rating:

BBC Sport's Paul Fletcher

Source: BBC Sport