Heroes Gibbs and Offiah clash again
Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:15
Two international union and league greats, Scott Gibbs and Martin Offiah, will be meeting once again on a rugby field when they square up in a charity match at Twickenham on September 20.
Wales union legend Gibbs, and English league hero Offiah will be joined in the Help for Heroes Challenge Match by other rugby greats such as All Black legend Jonah Lomu.
When asked whether he was looking forward to catching up with Offiah, Gibbs said: "Perhaps 'catch up' is not the right phrase, because Martin was the quickest player I ever saw on a rugby field.
"It will be great to see him again and have a chat about old times.
"We crossed swords in a number of Wigan v St Helen's derby matches when I was playing rugby league. You simply couldn't give him an inch because he'd be away.
"He was probably the hardest player to defend against over the full 80 minutes because you knew that if he got a sniff of some space he had the speed to exploit it.
"He had a great career with both Widnes and Wigan and it will be nice to see how he gets on against our secret weapon, Jonah Lomu.
"Now that is a battle between two rugby giants of different codes that is well worth the ticket price on 20 September."
Gibbs, a full four years younger than the 41-year-old Offiah, is also coming out of retirement to lead the International Select XV.
His training is going well and on Sunday he will be joining Wales Grand Slam prop Gethin Jenkins on the starting line of the Great Wales Run over 10km in Cardiff Bay.
"Gethin had a fantastic season with Wales and has established himself as one of the best prop forwards in the world. It will be interesting to see if I can keep up with him on the day," said Gibbs.
