Luke Gale

Luke Gale (born 22 June 1988) is an English professional rugby league footballer who plays as scrum-half or stand-off for Wakefield Trinity in the Super League. Gale has played for the England Knights and England at international level.

Luke Gale
Personal information
Born (1988-06-22) 22 June 1988
Leeds, West Yorkshire, England
Height5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Weight13 st 4 lb (84 kg)
Playing information
PositionScrum-half, Stand-off
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2007(loan) → Doncaster 9 3 22 1 57
2008(loan) → Doncaster 34 30 52 5 229
2009–11 Harlequins 72 20 95 4 274
2012–14 Bradford Bulls 64 19 119 5 319
2015–19 Castleford Tigers 104 33 415 16 978
2020–21 Leeds Rhinos 28 6 16 5 61
2022 Hull FC 20 2 40 1 89
2023 Keighley Cougars 9 3 7 0 26
2023– Wakefield Trinity 8 1 2 0 0
Total 348 117 768 37 2033
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
2011–12 England Knights 2 2 8 0 24
2016–17 England 9 1 5 0 14
Source: [1][2][3]
As of 1 May 2023

Having started his career at Leeds Rhinos, he previously played for Doncaster on loan in the National Leagues, and Harlequins RL, Bradford Bulls, Castleford Tigers and Hull F.C. in the Super League and for Keighley Cougars in the Championship.[2] He played occasionally as a hooker earlier in his career.

Biography

Gale was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England on 22 June 1988.[3]

Playing career

Doncaster RLFC

A Leeds academy graduate, Gale was sent out on loan to Doncaster in 2007 and established himself as a first-choice player, winning the National League Two Young Player of the Year award in 2008, in which he became the club's record points scorer in a season.

Harlequins RL

Gale's form at Doncaster attracted interest from Super League clubs and he moved to London's Harlequins Rugby League team.

Bradford Bulls
Gale in action for Harlequins in 2010.

Gale spent three years at Harlequins club before signing a two-year contract with Bradford Bulls.[4]

Gale immediately became first-choice scrum-half for Bradford, scoring 143 points for the club in his début season. He signed a three-year extension to his contract at the start of 2013,[5] however he missed the first three months of the season due to injury and only made 16 appearances in total during the year.

Gale playing for Bradford in 2014

Gale missed only one match for Bradford in 2014, however the team struggled on the field and the club was relegated from Super League at the end of the season, following which Gale left the club.

Castleford Tigers

Gale joined Castleford in 2015 as a replacement for the departing Marc Sneyd, and scored a try on his début for the club against Wakefield Trinity. Gale enjoyed a productive season, scoring 205 points and becoming an integral part of the team that narrowly missed out on the Super League semi-finals. His form was recognised as he won the Albert Goldthorpe Medal at the end of the season.[6]

Gale was made acting captain for the 2016 season due to injury to Michael Shenton.[7] Another strong season in which he topped the league for try assists saw him retain his Albert Goldthorpe medal.[8]

In 2017, Gale played an integral role in guiding Castleford to the League Leaders' Shield, their first piece of major silverware since 1994, as well as leading the team to their maiden Grand Final appearance, which was lost 24-6 to Leeds Rhinos.[9][10] Undoubtedly Gale’s best performance of the season was in Castleford’s 23-22 victory over St Helens in their Betfred Super League semi-Final, in which he converted a last-minute penalty to bring the game to golden point extra-time, before scoring the drop-goal which sent Castleford to Old Trafford for the first time in the club’s history.[11] Just two weeks beforehand, he had undergone an emergency appendectomy operation.[12] The following week, Gale was named 2017 Steve Prescott MBE Man of Steel for his performances throughout the season, beating team-mate Zak Hardaker and Hull FC’s Albert Kelly to the award.[13] He also won the Albert Goldthorpe Medal for a record-breaking third consecutive year.[14]

In May 2018, Gale suffered a knee injury which kept him sidelined for three months.[15] He then missed the entire 2019 season after rupturing his achilles tendon in training.[16]

Leeds Rhinos

In October 2019, Gale signed a three-year contract with his hometown club Leeds Rhinos for an undisclosed fee.[17] He captained Leeds in the 2020 Challenge Cup final against Salford Red Devils, with Gale scoring the winning drop-goal in the 76th minute of the game to edge Leeds to a 17-16 victory.[18] In July 2021, Gale was stripped of the captaincy,[19] which he later revealed was due to a disagreement with Leeds coach Richard Agar.[20]

Hull F.C.

On 5 November 2021 it was announced that he had signed for Hull F.C. in the Super League.[21][22]

In round 1 of the 2022 Super League season, he made his club debut and scored a try in Hull F.C's 16-12 victory over Wakefield Trinity. The following week, he was sent off for a professional foul in the clubs 38-6 loss against St. Helens R.F.C.[23] On 21 February, Gale was suspended for five matches over the red card against St Helens.[24]

Keighley Cougars

Gale became a free agent at the end of the 2022 season as his contract with Hull expired. On 19 December 2022 he signed a one-year contract to join Keighley in the Championship for 2023.[25]

Part-way through the 2023 season and after nine appearances for Keighley, Gale left the club to join Wakefield.

Wakefield Trinity

Gale signed a contract to keep him at Wakefield until the end of the 2024 season.[26] Gale played ten matches for Wakefield Trinity in the Super League XXVIII season as the club finished bottom of the table and were relegated to the RFL Championship which ended their 24-year stay in the top flight.[27]

International career

In 2011 and 2012, Gale played for the England Knights team. He kicked 8 goals, as well as scoring 1 try, in the Knights' 56–4 victory over Ireland in the 2012 European Cup.

After an outstanding 2015 Super League season, Gale was named in the senior England team for their end-of-year internationals against France and New Zealand,[28] but did not make an appearance. He was selected again in England's squad for the 2016 Four Nations, making his international début in a test match against France.

He was selected in the England squad for the 2017 Rugby League World Cup,[29] and subsequently played every game as England made the final in Melbourne, where they lost narrowly to hosts Australia.

Honours

Castleford
Runners up (1): 2017
  • Super League League Leaders Shield:
Winners (1): 2017

Leeds

Individual

References
  1. "Player Summary: Luke Gale". Rugby League Records. Rugby League Record Keepers Club. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  2. "Statistics at rugbyleagueproject.org". rugbyleagueproject.org. 31 December 2017. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
  3. "Luke Gale". castlefordtigers.com. Castleford Tigers. Retrieved 8 February 2018.
  4. "Bradford Bulls sign Harlequins scrum-half Luke Gale". BBC Sport. 22 July 2011. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  5. "Super League: Luke Gale signs new deal with Bradford Bulls". Sky Sports. 13 October 2012. Retrieved 16 September 2023.
  6. Bower, Aaron (14 September 2015). "Luke Gale wins Albert Goldthorpe Medal". TotalRL. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  7. Charles, Andy (11 February 2016). "Luke Gale to deputise for injured Castleford captain Michael Shenton". Sky Sports. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  8. Shaw, Matthew (5 September 2016). "Luke Gale wins the Albert Goldthorpe Medal again". TotalRL. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  9. "Grand Final 2017: Castleford 6-24 Leeds Rhinos". BBC Sport. 7 October 2017. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
  10. "Danny McGuire guides Leeds to Grand Final success over Castleford". Guardian. 7 October 2017. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
  11. Cartwright, Phil (28 September 2017). "Super League semi-final: Castleford Tigers 23-22 St Helens". BBC Sport. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  12. "Luke Gale: Castleford scrum-half amazed by Grand Final opportunity after surgery". BBC Sport. 3 October 2017. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  13. "Luke Gale: Castleford half-back wins 2017 Steve Prescott Man of Steel award". BBC Sport. 3 October 2017. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  14. Davis, Alex (11 September 2017). "Luke Gale wins Albert Goldthorpe Medal for a third time". TotalRL. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  15. "Luke Gale: Castleford Tigers half-back out for three months with fractured kneecap". BBC Sport. 2 May 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  16. "Luke Gale: Castleford Tigers & England half-back suffers further injury setback". BBC Sport. 6 January 2019. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  17. "Luke Gale: Leeds Rhinos sign Castleford Tigers & England half-back". BBC Sport. 1 October 2019. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  18. "Leeds beat Salford 17-16 after Luke Gale lands late winning drop-goal". www.bbc.co.uk.
  19. "Luke Gale: Leeds Rhinos stand down England half-back from captaincy". BBC Sport. 26 July 2021. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  20. "Luke Gale lifts the lid on his Leeds Rhinos exit and captaincy incident". Leeds Live. 9 November 2021. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  21. "Luke Gale: Hull FC sign former Man of Steel from Leeds Rhinos". BBC Sport. 5 November 2021. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  22. "Hull FC confirm Luke Gale signing". Love Rugby League. 5 November 2021. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  23. "St Helens boss Kristian Woolf on 'ugly situation' as Luke Gale sent off on Hull FC debut". www.skysports.com.
  24. "Luke Gale discovers length of suspension after disciplinary hearing concludes". www.hulldailymail.co.uk.
  25. "Cougars come up trumps with super signing of former Leeds and Bradford star Gale". Bradford Telegraph and Argus. 19 December 2022. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
  26. "Super League return confirmed for former Man of Steel Luke Gale". LoveRugbyLeague. 1 May 2023. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  27. "Super League: Wakefield Trinity relegated after loss at Leigh Leopards, St Helens and Wigan Warriors win". www.skysports.com.
  28. "MCNAMARA NAMES 24-MAN SQUAD FOR 2015 INTERNATIONAL SERIES". englandrl.co.uk. 11 October 2015. Retrieved 24 October 2015.
  29. "England rugby league World Cup squad revealed - and James Roby is back in the fold". Mirror. 9 October 2017. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
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