When you think about Premier League cult figures there’s a few that immediately spring to mind.
One name you mention to anyone will draw instant recognition… Rory Delap. Or to be more specific, a Rory Delap throw-in.
Stoke City under Tony Pulis were horrible to play against. They were big, physical, and disruptive.
Then you had this throw-in that was arrowed in by the defender that was near impossible to face.
One famous clip that always resurfaces on social media is of then Hull City goalkeeper Boaz Myhill.
He has the choice to kick the ball or for a throw-in or corner… and chooses the latter.
Ben Foster had Pulis on his ‘Fozcast’ and had text Myhill before coming on to ask for any stories about his old manager, with the pair linking up at West Brom.
Foster said: “Just ask him about the time when he was playing for Hull. It was in the time where Rory Delap was in his pomp.
“There’s this famous clip where he’s run out to the corner flag and the player is closing him down.
“He can either put it out for a throw-in or kick it for a corner… that’s quick thinking.
“It’s genius. At that moment in time, a throw-in was more of a threat than a corner for Stoke City.”
Pulis then went on to recall the story of how they discovered Delap had this secret weapon.
4
He said: “We knew exactly where that throw-in was going and how flat it was. We finished training one day and the lads were having a competition over on the far pitch about who could throw the longest.
“They’d put £50 in or something. Kempy [assistant manager Dave Kemp] is watching them, I’m doing something with the two young full-back.
“I walk over and Kempy says, ‘have you seen Rory throw the ball’. I’ve gone no. He said I can’t believe it.
“He’s gone ‘RORY, come here. Show the gaffer’. He throws it almost over the pitch.
“I said to him where have you been hiding that! He was a javelin thrower for his county and he’s ambidextrous so he can get further than most people.
“We then talk about how we don’t want it looped, we want it thrown. We had three positions we took up.
“One was in front of the goalkeeper coming to collect it. Near post movement and then middle of the goal coming across the goalkeeper. Then one around the back.
“People used to think it just happened, but we worked on it.”
Foster said: “It was murder to face.”
4
Pulis added: “Against the better teams we needed to break the game up, we didn’t want a free flowing game.
“Rory would then be throwing it from the halfway line and their players would be fed up.
“It just broke the game up.”
It even got under the skin of great managers like Arsene Wenger, who paid it special attention in his training session.
Pulis continued: “One story about Wenger, who was synonymous with the Stoke supporters, we were playing them in the cup.
“Patrick Vieira and Jens Lehman were on a coaching course with me. I did a licence with my down in south Wales.
4
“They were waiting for me after, we’ve mullered them most of the time, they tell me this story.
“It was the only time Arsene Wenger coached defensive work when we played them in that cup game.
“He had them there for 10-15 minutes. They worked all on this and they’d never known him being so uptight.
“They get there and Rory isn’t playing. Not only that we murder them 3-1. Wenger came in afterwards and had nothing to say.”
Rory Delap… Premier League heritage.
JOIN THE DUGOUT
Have your say on all things talkSPORT by joining ‘The DUGOUT’ – our new listener panel.
We’re all about diving deep into your perspectives, and making sure talkSPORT is the absolute best it can be. Your voice matters, and we want to hear it!
Pitch your game-changing ideas, and join in with fun surveys, polls, and locker-room discussions.
Just by joining, you’ll enter a prize draw to win one of four £50 Amazon vouchers, with another prize draw entry for every survey you complete after that
To join the ‘The DUGOUT’ panel, please click here.
