Was the captain of both St. John Fisher's school team (1988–93) which were regular finalists in the Yorkshire Cup, and St. John Fisher's ARLFC. St. John Fisher's school team has produced some notable English rugby league talents over the years including Francis Maloney, Ryan Sheridan, Matt Diskin, Adrian Flynn and Tommy Gallagher. His sporting heroes growing up were former Leeds star Garry Schofield, and ex-Manchester United, and England football captain, Bryan Robson. When playing at St. John Fisher, his preferred position was stand-off, and he was also the designated goal-kicker. Francis represented England schoolboys when he was 15 years old.
Professional playing career
Cummins played for Leeds throughout his whole career between 1993–2005. Cummins has also played on several occasions for Great Britain, and also Ireland at international level. He is the youngest player ever to appear in a Rugby League Challenge Cup at Wembley Stadium, London. He was aged just 17 years and 200 days when Leeds lost to Wigan in 1994, although Francis did score a memorable length-of-the-field try during the match.
Francis made his début for England in 1995 against France at Gateshead when he scored a hat-trick of tries, he then played for Emerging England in 1998 against Wales. He made his Great Britain début later that year playing in the last two Tests against New Zealand.
Cummins played for Leeds Rhinos as a centre in their 1998 Super League Grand Final loss to the Wigan Warriors.
In 1999 he gained two more caps for Great Britain in the Tri-Series against Australia and New Zealand. Unfortunately, injury struck in 2000 and Francis made the tough decision to pull out of that year's World Cup. He was later to rate this as the worst moment of his career. In 2001 Francis Cummins married Katy and has three children.
2001 saw Francis revert to playing for Ireland, making his début in France. He continued this in 2003 when he played as a fullback in both matches for Ireland in the European Nations Cup.
Francis set a new club record for consecutive appearances for Leeds Rhinos at the end of the 2003's Super League VIII with a total of 178 appearances. He is the seventh highest try scorer in the history of the club with total of 188 tries at the end of 2004, making him the most prolific try scorer in the past twenty years of the club.
Francis Cummins' Testimonial match at Leeds Rhinos took place in 2004.
Post playing
Following his retirement from playing for the Leeds Rhinos in 2005, Cummins subsequently continued the 12 year association when he became assistant coach at the Leeds Rhinos in 2006.[5]
In 2010 Francis decided to leave Leeds Rhinos and take the opportunity as the assistant coach at West Yorkshire rivals, the Bradford Bulls for the upcoming season. After a two-year period as assistant coach to Mick Potter, Cummins was appointed as head coach of the Bradford Bulls in September 2012.[6] He was sacked on 16 July 2014.[7]
On 7 Nov 2023 it was reported that he had joined the backroom staff at Hull FC following his departure from Wakefield Trinity[8]
