19 Jul 2009

Death of former Kiwi rugby league coach

10:03 am on 19 July 2009

Former Kiwi rugby league coach Ces Mountford has died in Queensland at the age of 90.

He had been suffering from the flu and died of a heart attack at his rest home on Saturday night.

Mountford was born in 1919 in the township of Blackball on the West Coast.

He moved to England in 1946 to play for Wigan and Warrington.

He scored 17 tries in his first season with Wigan and in 1951 was the first Kiwi to get a Challenge Cup winner's medal.

Mountford returned to New Zealand in 1961 and coached the Kiwis between 1979 - 1982.