Rugby league cult hero Paul Sykes to bring curtain down on 28-season career aged 45
Paul Sykes in action for Dewsbury Rams in 2024
Rugby league cult hero Paul Sykes will retire this weekend, bringing the curtain down on a remarkable 28-season professional career.
Sykes – who turned 45 earlier this month – has been with hometown club Dewsbury since the start of the 2016 campaign, playing 202 times in their colours to date.
A five-time England international, the veteran featured in the 2008 Rugby League World Cup – and was also capped once for Great Britain the year prior.
His CV also boasts five matches on the international stage for England Knights, with more than 2,800 career points scored between 155 tries and 1,096 goals
Saturday afternoon will bring the 556th and final appearance of his incredible career as Dewsbury round off their 2026 campaign on home soil against Newcastle Thunder.
Rugby league cult hero Paul Sykes to bring curtain down on 28-season career aged 45
Versatile back Sykes is a product of Bradford’s youth system, and enjoyed two stints at Odsal – racking up more than 100 games for the Bulls.
He also donned a shirt for London Broncos, Wakefield Trinity and Featherstone Rovers prior to joining hometown club Dewsbury: who he won the League 1 title with in 2023.
Saturday’s final career appearance will come a whopping 9,920 days after his senior debut for Bradford, which came in July 1999 against Wakefield, featuring off the bench at Belle Vue.
As the 45-year-old runs out for the Rams one final time this weekend, he will play just his sixth game of this year, but his 28-season professional career is a record which appears set to remain in place for a long time.
Dewsbury head into their final game of the campaign knowing they are unable to reach the Championship play-offs this term.
The top ten sides in the second tier will be involved in those play-offs, but Paul March’s side have won just one of their last ten games and sit eleventh, five competition points adrift of tenth-placed Batley Bulldogs.
Sykes made just his second start of the season last weekend as the Bulldogs beat Dewsbury in the Heavy Woollen derby at the FLAIR Stadium to end the Rams’ play-off hopes.
