Former Hull FC ace Tom Lineham is back in rugby league – with Goole Vikings. The ex-Super League Dream Team winger, who scored 54 tries in just 68 games for the Black and Whites between 2012 and 2015, has joined the League One outfit until the end of the campaign.
Lineham, 33, has been out of the sport since leaving York Knights at the end of last season to take up a new career. But the charismatic player, who won the 2019 Challenge Cup with Warrington Wolves and also featured for Wakefield Trinity, is now ready to fire again and has been training recently with the Vikings.
Lineham, who was in Super League’s 2013 Dream Team and also played for England Knights in Papua New Guinea, said: “It has come at a good time for both me and the club. I have taken some time off from my new profession to devote some time to the Vikings to help them continue their great run of form.
“We want a big finish to the season and I am looking forward to playing my part. The Vikings is an exciting project: I know a lot of people here, and a new challenge with a club local to me is something different that really appealed to me.”
Lineham, who played in a Grand Final with Warrington, re-unites with former team-mates Jamie Shaul, Jack Aldous, Thomas Minns and Andre Savelio in Goole colours and is set to debut against Rochdale Hornets on Sunday. Goole head coach Scott Taylor said: “Tom is a huge bonus for us and will add a great deal to our squad now and hopefully in the future.
“It presents a great opportunity for him and for us to get to see where he is at, but his experience speaks for itself. He is in fantastic shape, he has his hunger back and he is ready to make his mark – he has the ability to be a real game-changer at this level.
“It gives us some good options in the back line, with Manoa Wacokecoke unavailable at the moment and without being able to guarantee that we can always call on Neil Tchamambe. Tom’s arrival helps us maintain that depth and competition for places.”