But in 1984 the Lancashire Cup was still a big deal. Saints had not won it since the 1968-69 season when two Frank Wilson tries helped the red vee to a 30-2 victory over Oldham at Central Park. They made it back to the final in 1970 but lost 7-4 to Leigh at Station Road in Swinton, and they were shut-out 16-0 by Warrington in the 1982 final also at Central Park. A couple of seasons later they were back at the home of their greatest foe, and it was the cherry and whites providing the opposition this time around.
There was something different about the Saints vintage of 1984/85 and that something was Mal Meninga. The Australian test centre had starred for the Kangaroos on their 1982 tour of Great Britain, scoring 10 tries in 14 matches in a side that also included Brett Kenny, Peter Sterling, Wally Lewis and a pre-Warrington Les Boyd. Meninga had also kicked 68 goals on that tour as the Aussies won all 22 matches and earned the tag of the ‘invincibles’ way before Arsene Wenger rocked up in Islington. Included in that run was a 32-0 win over Saints at Knowsley Road. It happened to be one of the few matches on the tour in which Meninga failed to get over the try-line but they had seen enough of him that day and on the tour as a whole to know that he could significantly improve their prospects of winning silverware. It would be two more years before Meninga would arrive but he was very much worth the wait.
Those hopes of winning silverware needed a boost. The 1983/84 campaign prior to Meninga’s arrival in St.Helens had been mediocre to say the least. Saints finished 6th having lost 11 of their 30 league games. Defeats at Oldham and Leigh were particularly costly early on while there was a horrific run of six defeats in seven league games between the beginning of December and January 11. Things picked up with four wins on the spin before further losses to Leeds and Castleford halted any momentum Saints had gained. To add to their woes in the league they were knocked out of the Lancashire Cup at home to Warrington in the second round. They did reach the semi-final of the John Player Trophy but went down 18-4 to Widnes while Wigan ended Saints Challenge Cup hopes with a 16-7 round three victory at Knowsley Road in March.
Meninga did not make his Saints debut until early October 1984 by which time his new club had already suffered league defeats to Hull KR and Bradford Northern. His impact was immediate, scoring two tries in a 30-16 win over Castleford. Leigh were dispatched 31-10 in the Lancashire Cup three days later (what player welfare?) before league wins over Hunslet, Halifax and Oldham going into the October 28 Lancashire Cup Final against a Wigan side coached by Colin Clarke, father of Sky Sports irrelevant stat-man and former Wigan star Phil.
All the hard work was done in the first half. It took just five minutes for Meninga to make his first contribution to proceedings, burrowing and pirouetting between two Wigan defenders to cross for the first try of the afternoon. Sharp thinking from Graham Liptrot created the space as he switched the ball back to the short side after taking Harry Pinner’s pass from dummy half.
Meninga played a part in Saints second and third tries also. First he followed up Paul Round’s break to be on hand at dummy half when Round was hauled down just short of the line. Meninga’s quick pass from the play-the-ball found the world’s most willing runner in Roy Haggerty who went over untouched to extend Saints lead. Then after quick passing from Chris Arkwright and Neil Holding found Meninga one-on-one with opposing centre David Stephenson the man who would go on to coach Australia to a World Cup win in 2017 got on the outside of Stephenson before brilliantly finding Sean Day with a clear run to the line. Day bagged 114 goals in that 1984/85 season including five in this final. He also crossed for nine tries during that season. He wasn’t around long in a Saints shirt but Day’s star shone brightly the year that Meninga was terrorising defences on his inside.
Wigan were hanging on by a thread at this point, blown away in the first half an hour by a rampant Saints side inspired by their Australian talisman. Before half-time Meninga would more or less settle matters with the Golden Try that inspires this column. A neat little run-around between Liptrot and Holding saw the ball worked out wide to Round. Rather than attempt another surge for the line the Saints second row threw a rather speculative, hooked pass of the type that in the modern game would give Wayne Bennett palpitations. Yet it turned out that Round knew exactly what he was doing, finding Meninga with enough space to beat his man again before effortlessly rounding a young fullback by the name of Shaun Edwards to touch down by the left hand corner. It all added up to a 24-2 half-time lead for Saints and although Wigan fought back in the second half with tries from Henderson Gill, Nicky Kiss and Graeme West another penalty goal from Day was enough to keep them at arms-length and secure the trophy for Billy Benyon’s side.
It was Saints first meaningful silverware since winning the Premiership Trophy in 1977. They won the Premiership again at the end of the 84/85 Meninga season but were just pipped to what would have been a first league title in 10 years by Hull KR. The Robins finished three points ahead of Saints in second and also knocked Benyon’s men out of the Challenge Cup with an 8-3 victory at Knowsley Road in February of 1985. In the league defeats at home to Wigan on Boxing Day, at Castleford at the end of January as well as at Hull FC, Oldham and at Leigh on the last day proved the undoing of the red vee. The loss to Wigan over the festive season was the only home league defeat suffered by Saints that season and when they saw Rovers off 30-14 in mid-April hopes were rekindled, only for their poor away form to ruin Saints dreams.
It would be another 11 years before Saints captured a league title, by which time they had gone 21 years without one. Meninga never returned to the club despite several suggestions and rumours that he would do so. Broken arms and no doubt a rather large wedge from the coffers of Canberra Raiders ensured that there would not be another Australian centre making that big a splash at Saints until 2005. Then, Jamie Lyon left his country life behind to rip holes in Super League defences for a couple of seasons, culminating in the treble winning year of 2006.
Meninga scored 28 tries in 31 appearances for Saints which is a record which compares reasonably to that of Ben Barba (34 in 34) and favourably with that of Lyon (46 in 63). All three will be remembered for the sprinkle of stardust they brought to Saints during their short stints, but it is perhaps Meninga who can claim to have had the biggest impact in terms of turning around the team’s form from the previous season.
You can enjoy all of the highlights described in this piece here.
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