AN EAST Yorkshire artist is creating a bronze sculpture of five rugby league heroes for Wembley Stadium.
The sculpture featuring sporting legends Billy Boston, Eric Ashton, Martin Offiah, Gus Risman and Alex Murphy celebrates the Challenge Cup.
Hull sculptor Steve Winterburn has spent months creating the piece, which will be unveiled on the day of the 2014 cup final.
The artist wants to celebrate the waves of emotion a final can stir.
"I'm trying to get across the passion and the celebration of being at Wembley for the Challenge Cup," he said.
"You look at the cup itself and, straight away, you're transported into the past. Games have been played for it for 100 years.
"We had the Challenge Cup at the studio overnight. I wouldn't go out. I was frightened to death because it means so much to so many people."
It was important to Mr Winterbottom to represent the spirit of rugby league and that meant not being too highbrow.
For him, it is a people's sport.
"You look at rugby league and it's a tough game," he said.
"You have to bow to what they do for the crowd. It's a full-on contact men's sport.
"I know players get flack when they don't do well but you beat me up every week and see if I can always play at my best.
"The sculpture needs to represent that. It doesn't want to be chocolate-box because that's not what the sport is like."
The artist beat several other professionals to win the sculpture contract and painstakingly created drawings of the work.
He has now made a scale model, or maquette, to tweak the positioning of the figures involved.
It makes minor alterations easy before working on a full-size piece.
"Miniatures are good because you can position them with your thumb and the movement changes," Mr Winterburn said.
"Paintings are two-dimensional, whereas sculpture has to work in every direction.
"One little movement can really be what it needs."
Rugby league's governing body the RFL commissioned the work and has already raised enough money to meet much of its cost.
It had first been hoped the work would be completed by November this year but the date has been put back and the players featured or their surviving relatives have been told.
An RFL spokesman said: "This is a complex project and the most important thing is to get all the details of the project right.
"We are pleased that a great deal has already been achieved but we are conscious that we will not be able to have everything in place for November and therefore we will continue to progress the necessary planning process and other details to complete the work in time for an unveiling ceremony at Wembley ahead of next year's Tetley's Challenge Cup Final."
