Few rugby league players were as intimidating as Vince Karalius, a legendary loose forward for St Helens, Widnes and Great Britain, who revelled in the nickname “Wild Bull of the Pampas” after the Argentine boxer Luis Ángel Firpo, who in 1923 knocked Jack Dempsey, the heavyweight champion, out of the ring.

The craggy-faced, raw-boned Karalius was one of the sport’s hard men. A ferocious tackler and uncompromising runner with the ball who struck fear in opponents, he was also one of the game’s most creative exponents and a professional ahead of his time in terms of personal fitness. He was reputed to run from his house in Widnes to training at St Helens and back, a round trip of 20 miles.

Ray French, the BBC commentator and a young team-mate of Karalius’s at St Helens in 1961, wrote in his book 100 Great Rugby League Players that parents in Australia were rumoured to frighten their children into going to bed with the threat that “Karalius is coming”.

Alex Murphy, the St Helens scrum half, acknowledged the support and protection offered him by Karalius on the field: “He was my loose forward and he was unbelievable to have on your side. If he said it was Christmas, you took his word, whatever time it was — it was Christmas.”

In Australia he is remembered for his international debut for Britain in the second Test of the 1958 Ashes series. Alan Prescott, the captain, broke his arm but soldiered on and Karalius, who had been suspended for the first match after being sent off in the opening tour game, stepped in to the stand-off position and helped to inspire a 25-18 win in what became known as the “Battle of Brisbane”. He was also instrumental in the 40-17 victory in Sydney that won the series.

His “Wild Bull” sobriquet was given by an Australian journalist, although Karalius was only included in the 1958 tour party at the insistence of Tom Mitchell, the manager, who wanted his intimidating presence to counter the likes of the Australian hard men Norm Provan and Kel O’Shea. Karalius went on with Britain in 1960 to lift the World Cup by beating New Zealand, France and Australia again. He was inducted into the Rugby League Hall of Fame in 2000. His 15-year playing career began at St Helens in 1951. He had been spotted playing for West Bank, an amateur club in Widnes. Success came quickly: he was in St Helens’s league championship-winning squad in 1953 and set up a crucial try in a victorious first Challenge Cup final at Wembley in 1956.

The Challenge Cup almost became his personal property. He won the cup again in 1961 as St Helens captain after victory over the great rivals, Wigan, and he led Widnes to their first Wembley triumph for 27 years in 1964, two years after moving to his hometown club. He later coached Widnes and brought his own personal stamp of ferocious determination and a winning mentality.

Each of his two spells in charge at Naughton Park culminated in cup success. Widnes beat Warrington in the 1975 final and defeated Wigan in the 1984 final, at the start of the club’s great run of success in the 1980s and 1990s. He retired from the game shortly afterwards and concentrated on a thriving scrap metal business, which he sold before moving to the Isle of Man.

He is survived by his wife, Barbara, and two daughters.

Vince Karalius, rugby league player and coach, was born on October 15, 1932. He died of cancer on December 13, 2008, aged 76