Vale Lance Thompson

Embed from Getty Images

The NRL community is in mourning today following the news that former Dragons and Sharks forward Lance Thompson passed away, aged 40.

An iconic player for the mighty Red V, Thompson played 201 games combined for the St George and St George Illawarra clubs from 1995 til 2005, before joining arch-rivals Cronulla for the following season.

He retired from rugby league in 2008 after making 38 appearances for the black, white and blue, and went on to coach the Sharks' NSW Cup team in the years that followed. He also made five appearances for City Origin between 2001 and 2007.

It is understood Thompson suffered a medical episode and police are not treating his death as suspicious.

You can join our rugby league community in paying tribute to Lance in our forums, and check out his career statistics at Rugby League Project.

I am absolutely numb at the news of Lance Thompson passing away.If you watched Lance on The Fan this year,you would appreciate what a genuine & hard working man he was. Shattered for his family.He proved you dont need to have won GF's or played for your country to be a champion.
— Andrew Voss (@AndrewVossy) August 23, 2018

Rest in peace, Lance.