This Sporting Life

This Sporting Life is a 1963 British feature film based on a novel of the same name by David Storey which had won the 1960 Macmillan Fiction Award. It recounts the story of a rugby league footballer, Frank Machin, in Wakefield, a mining area of Yorkshire, whose romantic life is not as successful as his sporting life. Storey, a former professional rugby league footballer, also wrote the screenplay.

Set in Wakefield, the film concerns a bitter young Yorkshire coal miner, Frank Machin Harris. Following a nightclub altercation, in which he takes on the captain of the local rugby league club and punches a couple of the others, he is recruited by the teams manager, who sees profit in his aggressive streak.Although at first somewhat uncoordinated at league, he impresses the teams owner, Gerald Weaver Badel, with the spirit and brutality of his playing style during the trial. He is signed up to the top team as a loose forward numberand impresses all with his aggressive forward play. He often punches or elbows the opposition players throughout the game. ........

Source: Wikipedia