Classic Games - Saints 41 Wigan 6

I have a tendency to recall that Wigan won every game they played when I was growing up. To some extent that is true. It is well documented that they won eight consecutive Challenge Cup finals between 1988 and 1995. Saints were involved in two of those, humiliated 27-0 at the old Wembley in 1989 but pushing them to the very limit in a match that finished 13-8 two years later. As well as success at Wembley Wigan dominated the first division championship too. They bagged seven in a row between 1989-90 and the final season of winter rugby league in 1995-96.

Although that trophy haul demonstrates their dominance of the era immediately prior to Super League there were times when it didn’t go all their own way. When a bounce of the ball here, a refereeing decision there, could have brought the streak of league titles to a shuddering halt. In two consecutive seasons - 1992-93 and 1993-94 - Wigan won the title only by virtue of a superior points difference over the campaign. In the latter of those two seasons there were not one but two other sides involved in the tie-breaker. Both Warrington and Bradford Northern matched Wigan’s 46 points from 23 wins and seven losses in 30 outings.

It is to the first of those two seasons with photo-finish endings that we go to remember one of the great Saints performances in a derby, or indeed any other fixture. Wigan came to Knowsley Road on December 27 1992 with only one league defeat blotting their record. That came in what these days would be known as Round 2 when they lost 14-13 in a game notable for the fact that Martin Offiah kicked a rare drop-goal. Saints by contrast had lost three times, so needed a win in this one to prevent their local rivals opening up an eight-point advantage over them. That kind of deficit would have seemed insurmountable even with half of the season still to play.

The teams had met once already that season, a bruising Lancashire Cup final encounter at Knowsley Road in October. That game had been so tight that no tries were scored by either side. The result was still familiar even if the methods were not, Wigan winning 5-4 thanks to Frano Botica’s drop-goal. Botica was one of nine Wigan players from the starting line-up that day to start the festive league encounter. Phil Clarke had missed the cup final but returned here allowing Dean Bell to revert back to the centres in place of Joe Lydon. Andy Platt moved from prop to second row to make room for Neil Cowie as Billy McGinty dropped to the bench. Sam Panapa started on the wing in place of Jason Robinson who was only a substitute.

Saints returned the same number to their side. Phil Veivers was relegated to the bench as David Lyon came in at fullback, while Paul Loughlin’s return to the fold meant Aussie import Jarrod McCracken moved to the wing. With Anthony Sullivan out Alan Hunte switched wings. Jonathan Griffiths was also absent leaving Saints with an all-Kiwi halfback partnership of Tea Ropati and Shane Cooper. Chris Joynt moved to Cooper’s regular loose forward spot so George Mann partnered Sonny Nickle in the second row. Kevin Ward, - one of the chief protagonists of the story of the Good Friday meeting which ultimately decided the destiny of the title - was not available so Jon Neill and John Harrison started at prop.

Optimism did not often endure when it came to derby matches during Wigan’s glory days. You’d approach the game thinking that if every Saints player played to the best of his ability, if every risky offload stuck, and if two or three of Wigan’s key players had an off day we had a chance. The trouble was that this Wigan side had more keys than Elton John’s piano. If Offiah didn’t get you with his Spaceballs ‘are you nuts?’ speed then Shaun Edwards, Botica, Clarke, Bell, Steve Hampson or Platt - with all of their varied weapons and talents (yes Clarke had talents in those days) - would. They had internationals all over the field and a couple on the bench in McGinty and Robinson. So there was a sense of foreboding as early as the fourth minute when Offiah turned up on the right edge to put Botica over in the right hand corner. Botica was fairly automatic when it came to goal kicking so barely an eyebrow was raised when he slotted over the conversion from out wide to give Wigan a 6-0 advantage. It was the last time the scoreboard operators would need to bother with the Wigan side of the ledger that day.

Had Botica been wearing the red vee rather than Wigan’s blue and white hoops the final score line could have been uglier for the visitors. Saints missed a plethora of goal kicking opportunities, the first of which came on seven minutes and was spurned by Lyon. The responsibility would be handed back to Loughlin for the rest of the afternoon and although he was just as wayward at times he would get plenty of opportunities. The first of those arrived on 11 minutes. After building their way back into the game with a good spell of possession Saints broke through. Cooper found Hunte on the left hand touchline and the then 22-year-old squeezed in at the corner. Loughlin was unsuccessful with the extras but Saints were back in the game at 6-4.

It was at this point that one of Wigan’s biggest weapons (which works on at least a couple of levels) left proceedings. As Saints prepared to restart the game the frustrated figure of Offiah could be seen being led away for further examination on what seemed to be an injury of some sort. For all his brilliance Offiah was not the most robust of rugby league players. His ability to evade being tackled served him as well for his own protection as it did for rattling multiples of four on to the scoreboard. He was replaced by Robinson. History dictates that Robinson is just about as good a replacement winger as it was possible to introduce. Yet at the time Robinson was still a fairly raw 18-year-old playing in his first season in the first division after arriving at Wigan from Hunslet. He would have much, much better days than this.

Saints were beginning to establish their supremacy on the game. Just before the 20 minute mark one of rugby league’s long forgotten relics created an opportunity to extend the lead. This was a time when it was perfectly legal to tap the ball to yourself at the play-the-ball. Sonny Nickle did exactly that to go over by the posts after a dazzling move earlier in the set involving Mann, Cooper and Joynt. Loughlin was more accurate with the extras this time and Saints were 10-6 up.

It was only two minutes later that the scoreboard and as a consequence the game itself started to get away from Wigan. Lyon stormed through on a sizzling break and when the ball eventually found its way to Hunte he finished it superbly. In doing so he absorbed a hit from Clarke that was later than a government lockdown. The kind of challenge that were Blackrod’s finest to witness it now in his role as a Sky Sports summariser he would no doubt emit one of his unloved piercing shrieks before calling for the culprit to be sent for an early wash. The game was different then, however, not least because games were not covered by live TV very often and therefore not subject to the musings of a trolling controversy hound. The worst that happened to Clarke was that Loughlin tagged on two more points and Saints led 16-6.

Joynt was next to cross for Saints as proceedings took us ever closer to Dreamland. Bernard Dwyer was the provider and when Loughlin was on target with the conversion and a penalty just before half-time Saints headed to the break with a barely credible 24-6 lead. Yet still we wondered. Even as Ropati was scything through the Wigan defence to set up the position for Dwyer to put Joynt over you were not a proper, seasoned Saints fan if you were not thinking about how much better Wigan were going to be in the second half. How they would romp back into the game and snatch it away, probably via some heinous act of skullduggery and shithousery.

Except they didn’t. To our absolute delight John Monie’s side were just as bad after the oranges. Monie would later remark that he didn’t have a good player on the field which was some statement. He had several good players and some greats. Yet they were made to look average by a Saints side for whom everything was working. There was one surreal moment when Gary Connolly was forced into a rash kick from dummy half on the last tackle. Connolly was to kicking what Priti Patel is to the oration of six-figure numbers, but his effort nevertheless pulled up inches short of the dead ball line forcing his future employers to have to run it back into the field of play. It was that sort of day.

Gus O’Donnell had been at Wigan for four years before switching to Saints earlier in the year. He was introduced at the start of the second half in place of Neill. This forced a bit of reshuffling, with Mann slotting back into his preferred prop role from the back row, Joynt moving into the spot vacated by Mann alongside Nickle and Cooper reverting to loose forward. That allowed O’Donnell to partner Ropati in the halves and within two minutes he had made his mark. His grubber bounced into the Wigan in-goal area where it was missed by Connolly but pounced upon by Lyon. Loughlin fluffed his attempt at two more points but at 28-6 those half-time doubts were diminishing.

If there was ever any doubt about who was going to win this game it evaporated three minutes later. McCracken embarked on a typically strong run, the type which regards self preservation low on the list of priorities, whereupon he was met with some of that Wigan skullduggery and shithousery. Kelvin Skerrett hit McCracken in the head with a shoulder, dropping the Kiwi centre to the floor like Boris Johnson dropping a pregnant mistress. Or the idea of herd immunity. There was no surprise in Skerrett’s actions. He had something of a reputation. I met him in a long forgotten St Helens drinking establishment once and we recalled the incident - and a subsequent one in which he jumped over a pile of bodies to get involved in a fight with some Featherstone players - with great amusement. He couldn’t explain his actions on either occasion and didn’t seem to feel the need to. It just was what it was. Skerretts gonna Skerrett.

His dismissal was the final nail in the Wigan coffin on the day. For a while after all they wanted to do was fight and spoil. Any thoughts of playing their way back into the game had drifted away. Within two minutes there was another confrontation, the upshot of which was that Nickle and Platt were ordered to sit down and cool off for 10 minutes by referee Robin Whitfield. Platt had played 185 times for Saints before moving to Wigan in 1988. He had shed tears on the Wembley turf in 1987 when two disallowed Mark Elia tries denied Saints victory and had all of Halifax (and probably Wigan) in rapture. I couldn’t hear what was said to Platt as he and Nickle trudged off for their enforced rest, but it was unlikely that many of the fans on that side of the ground were asking after his health.

Loughlin slotted another penalty five minutes later and Saints led 30-6. In many ways the decision to kick for goal there was indicative of how the game has changed, and how the power dynamic between these two great rivals has transformed. If the Saints of 2020 get back on the field they can expect nothing short of a social media shit storm should they decide to kick for goal from a penalty while leading Wigan at home by 22 points with only a quarter of the game left. It suggested that there was still a part of the Saints psyche that wouldn’t allow itself to believe that the game was won against Wigan until the final hooter sounded. Every point still seemed crucial. It was that sort of insecurity which probably led Mann into deliberately interfering with an attempted quick play-the-ball which meant that he also saw yellow shortly after. For a time it was 11 v 11 with Skerrett showering and all of Nickle, Mann and Platt in the sin-bin.

McCracken should have added to Saints lead but couldn’t chase down his own kick after an errant Wigan pass had gifted him an opportunity. He was probably still seeing fairies and stars after the hit from Skerrett. Loughlin hit the post with another attempt at goal before we saw the next points of the afternoon. When they came they were worth the wait. It was undoubtedly the aesthetic highlight of the game. Hunte was found in space on the left touchline where he broke and then attempted an audacious chip and chase. The bounce of the ball beat him but it was scooped up by Veivers, on as a 61st minute replacement for Ropati. The Australian fullback found the newly returned Nickle in support, and he trekked right across the width of the Knowsley Road pitch before strolling over in the right hand corner. Again the conversion failed but Wigan were now officially on the end of a hammering at 34-6.

When O’Donnell added a drop-goal to push it out to 35-6 even the most paranoid Saints fan could breath easily, the most optimistic Wigan fan already ordering his first pint at the Black Bull or the Bird I’th Hand. Yet Saints weren’t finished. Nickle was quite a sight in full flow back then. A more slight, speedier presence than the player who returned after a spell with Bradford Bulls. He used that speed to great effect to set up Saints’ final try of the night, hurtling through a gap and charging down the right hand touchline. He was eventually stopped, but some trademark ball skills from Cooper drew in several Wigan defenders and with a flick of the wrist Cooper found his compatriot Ropati who walked in untouched. Loughlin’s sixth goal of the day completed an eye-popping 41-6 win.

We know the rest of the story. Saints would only lose twice more in the league that campaign, at Widnes and Hull FC. Yet that 8-8 draw on Good Friday at Central Park - which saw Ward suffer the leg break which would end his career - also did for Saints title hopes. Wigan recovered sufficiently from their Knowsley Road towelling, albeit slowly. Nine days after their visit to St Helens Monie’s side lost 11-4 at home to Warrington. Further defeats in the run-in at Bradford and Castleford meant that the Easter meeting was effectively a winner takes all clash. Like a boxer defending his belt the draw was just about enough to see Wigan through to the fourth of those seven successive titles.

The tide would turn towards Saints as professionalism emerged. They would have their time with a new set of stars. Bobbie Goulding - formerly of Wigan - Paul Newlove, Scott Gibbs and a bright young thing named Keiron Cunningham joined the likes of Joynt and Hunte in Shaun McRae’s inaugural Super League champion side of 1996. Yet for many December 27 1992 is the date when the fear factor attached to facing Wigan started to subside.

RFL 125 Years - Greatest Ever Team

The Rugby Football League is 125 years old in 2020. Cynics might suggest that it is the most rugby league thing in the world to be celebrating this milestone at a time when the game has been hit by an unprecedented suspension, but it really is just bad luck. While we fans feed off the scraps offered to us in the form of nostalgic re-runs of classic matches, the RFL have sparked some much needed debate by staging a poll to find the greatest team of that 125-year history.

They have somehow narrowed it down to five which I will get to in a minute. First of all let’s get a few honourable mentions out of the way. Those that didn’t make the cut. Everyone will have their own ideas on which is the greatest team since the 1895 formation of the northern union and your preference will no doubt be influenced by your date of birth and how long you have been watching the game. None of the five shortlisted sides pre-date Sky Sports’ coverage of the game which began in 1990 which tells you either that the people behind this are targeting a younger audience or that they have taken the view that even the best of the semi-professional sides could not live with those who have prospered in the full-time era since 1996.

When I was growing up there seemed to be an endless stream of great Wigan sides. Stars like Ellery Hanley, Andy Gregory and Shaun Edwards enjoyed stellar careers and have overflowing medal collections. Any one of their sides from 1988-1995 could have made the cut. This was a period during which they won a ludicrous eight consecutive Challenge Cup finals at Wembley. Yes they had a competitive advantage as the only fully professional outfit for part of that time, but they nevertheless played some scintillating rugby. The mere sight of the cherry and white hooped shirt could give this impressionable youngster a sickening, sinking feeling before a ball was kicked. Success in those days was winning the odd derby or a John Player Trophy or Lancashire Cup, such was their grip on the first division title and the Challenge Cup.

That is until Widnes came along. It seems a world away now as they toil away in the Championship but the pre-Vikings Chemics were a formidable force in the late 80s and early 90s. Jonathan Davies’ high profile switch from rugby union was a roaring success along with that of John Devereux and the slightly less heralded Alan Tait. Yet their main weapon was the outlandish pace of Martin Offiah. Before he smelled the money on offer from Wigan Offiah scored 181 tries in 145 appearances for Widnes as they won back-to-back titles in 1987-88 and 1988-89. They then added the World title in 1989 when they beat Canberra Raiders on a memorable night at Old Trafford.

What about Hull KR? Back-to-back title winners in 1983-84 and 1984-85 and the first team to complete the league championship and Premiership double. Or the Leeds side of the late 1960s and early 1970s that won two titles in three years? Wakefield Trinity won two in a row just prior to that in 1966-67 and 1967-68. Any one of Ian Millward’s Saints sides between 2000-2005 could have been included if we are judging this on aesthetic pleasure and star power. For me it is only right to judge it on trophy haul, and although Millward picked up two Super League titles and two Challenge Cups it is hard to argue that any of them did quite enough to make the list. I will say though that the 1996 double-winners under Shaun McRae, featuring Paul Newlove, Bobby Goulding and Scott Gibbs are unfortunate not to make it.

The only one of the sides I have mentioned to make it into the final five is, perhaps predictably, a Wigan side. Specifically their 1994 vintage, which won the title only on points difference from both Bradford Northern and Warrington. The latter could by then count Davies among their ranks. But neither could quite edge Wigan who picked up the seventh of their eight straight Challenge Cup wins with a 26-16 win over Leeds at Wembley. That game featured a barely believable 90-metre glide to the line by the imperious Offiah who dropped to his knees in an iconic yet at the time vomit-inducing celebration which is now captured in statue form at the new Wembley.

All very impressive, yet I suspect it is Wigan’s World Club Challenge win over Brisbane Broncos in the Australian side’s back yard that has sealed their inclusion in this list. A side containing Offiah, Edwards, Jason Robinson, Gary Connolly, Andy Farrell and Sky Sports fashion criminal Phil Clarke went to ANZ Stadium and won 20-14. They did so despite the absence of first choice prop forwards Andy Platt and Kelvin Skerrett. They faced down a Broncos team featuring greats of the game like Steve Renouf, Allan Langer, the Walters brothers Kevin and Kerrod and a pacy, powerful winger just a month shy of his 20th birthday by the name of Wendell Sailor.

English club teams had beaten Australian opposition before. As well as Widnes’ 1989 triumph Wigan had themselves won it twice before, beating Manly in 1987 and Penrith in 1991, but nobody had done it on Australian soil. And they haven’t since. The side coached by former captain Graeme West following the sudden sacking of John Dorahy added another first when they became the first rugby league team to be named BBC Sports Review Of The Year Team Of The Year.

Jumping forward nine years to the next on the list and another team that would go on to be crowned World Champions, the 2003 Bradford Bulls. The switch to summer by then meant that they had to wait until early 2004 to take that title and add it to the Grand Final and Challenge Cup double they had already pocketed. The club had reinvented itself with the advent of Super League and summer rugby and had already won Super League titles in 1997 and 2001. Yet they entered 2003 on the back of some painful memories, beaten by Sean Long’s last-gasp drop-goal in the 2002 Grand Final. Having lost to Saints at Wembley in the Challenge Cup finals of both 1996 and 1997 they were thoroughly sick of the sight of them.

Even Saints couldn’t halt the Bulls in 2003. Brian Noble’s side won the league by three points from Leeds Rhinos and also scored a 22-20 Challenge Cup final win over Daryl Powell’s side under the roof at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium. However, the league itself was not enough by 2003 thanks to the 1998 introduction of the Grand Final. A Bulls side featuring Lesley Vainikolo, James Lowes, Stuart Fielden and Jamie Peacock with Robbie Paul and Leon Pryce among the reinforcements off the bench beat Wigan 25-12 in the end of season showpiece.

Four months later they were too strong for Penrith Panthers, winning 22-4 at Huddersfield. Tries from Vainikolo and Pryce as well as prop turned actor Rob Parker and New Zealand international Logan Swann were more than enough to see off John Lang’s Panthers who could only respond through Luke Priddis’ solitary effort. Following that the Bulls were holders of the League Leaders Shield, the Challenge Cup, the Super League Grand Final trophy and the World Club Challenge title all at the same time. You don’t get many of those for a pound.

The time-hop isn’t quite as big for our next contender. Saints now enter the conversation with their own all-conquering side. They too would hold the same four titles as the 2003-04 Bulls had by the early part of 2007 thanks to victory over Brisbane Broncos after a dominant 2006 domestic season.

Coached by Daniel Anderson after the shock and fairly controversial departure of Millward a year previously, Saints were unstoppable in 2006. They topped the league by eight points, suffering only four league defeats from 28 regular season games before seeing off Hull FC in the Grand Final 28-8. There appeared to be no weakness anywhere in this Saints side which contained future legends of the game such as Paul Wellens, Sean Long, Kieron Cunningham and the genius of Jamie Lyon. A young James Graham came off the bench. Paul Sculthorpe missed the game through injury but was another all-time great that Anderson could call upon during the year. So star-studded and consistently brilliant was this Saints side that it joined Wigan’s 1994 team as only the second rugby league side to win the BBC Sports Review Of The Year Team Of The Year award.

Lyon had been replaced by Matthew Gidley by the time Saints faced the Broncos in early 2007 at Bolton’s Reebok Stadium. Gidley’s impact is often understated. Replacing Lyon was arguably an impossible job but Gidley made a reasonable fist of it with 48 tries in 123 appearances and two Challenge Cup winners medals in 2007 and 2008. On this night he was a provider, setting up Ade Gardner’s first try before the ex-Barrow winger soared into the Lancashire night sky to claim his second to secure Saints’ 18-14 win and cement their place among the greatest teams of all-time.

The year 2015 is not one fondly remembered by Saints fans but it is there we go next. Keiron Cunningham was in the first year of what turned out to be a disappointing spell as head coach at what was then called Langtree Park. Saints were the defending champions after their 14-6 Grand Final win over Wigan in 2014. Yet by the end of the following season the power had shifted east of the Pennines as Leeds Rhinos joined the exclusive club of treble winning sides.

Brian McDermott had been a key figure in the Bradford Bulls front row a decade earlier. Cutting his coaching teeth in the capital with Harlequins RL he switched back up north to Leeds in 2011. Grand Final success followed in 2012, the Rhinos’ fifth title in six seasons. Yet the best of Leeds’ Grand Final winning sides emerged in 2015 under McDermott’s stewardship. He implemented a fast, off-loading style of attacking rugby which perfectly suited the personnel at his disposal. A back five of Zak Hardaker, Tom Briscoe, Kallum Watkins, Joel Moon and Ryan Hall was as good as any in world rugby league at the time, but it was the influence of some ageing rugby league legends that set this team apart from their rivals. Danny McGuire, Kevin Sinfield, Rob Burrow and Peacock all had arguably the best seasons of their careers. The Rhinos only edged the league on points difference after the newly introduced Super 8s phase, but they racked up a record 50-0 score line in the Challenge Cup final win over Hull KR before settling the argument with Wigan by virtue of a 22-20 win. McGuire crossed for two tries to add to further efforts from Moon and Josh Walters.

The Rhinos could not add the world title to their trophy haul. They were comprehensively beaten 38-4 by North Queensland Cowboys at Headingley at the start of a 2016 season that would see them scrapping to avoid the drop to the Championship in the Middle 8s. Yet it would be unfair to accuse them of lacking longevity given that their 2015 success was their sixth in nine seasons. And by far the most impressive.

The last contender are the current champions. Saints entered 2019 with many raising doubts about their ability to get over the line in the very biggest games. Justin Holbrook’s first season in charge saw Saints storm the League Leaders Shield by 10 points, only to be upset in the play-off semi-final at home to Warrington. Speculation regarding the future of the outstanding Steve Prescott Man Of Steel Ben Barba was a distraction, but coming in the wake of a chastening 35-16 Challenge Cup semi-final defeat to Catalans Dragons it all added up to a fair degree of fear and loathing among the Saints faithful.

Barba did leave amid a hail of serious allegations of domestic abuse which ultimately scuppered the move to North Queensland Cowboys that he had already agreed. His replacement was former Cowboy Lachlan Coote, while Holbrook also added Fijian centre Kevin Naiqama from Wests Tigers. The results were spectacular. Saints lost only three of their 29 regular season games, two of which came at an eventually relegated London where Holbrook chose to field demonstrably weaker sides. The only question was whether this time they could negotiate the play-offs to reach and ultimately win the club’s seventh Super League crown.

They dismissed Wigan in the Qualifying Semi-Final with a ruthless display. Saints ran in seven tries against Adrian Lam’s men. Mark Percival grabbed a double and crossed again in the 23-6 Grand Final win over Salford. Ian Watson’s side has shocked everyone by reaching Old Trafford but were found out by the now undisputed champions who also scored through Morgan Knowles and Zeb Taia. There was quality throughout the side but it is perhaps their fearsome front three of Alex Walmsley, Luke Thompson and James Roby that had been the driving force. It is doubtful whether Saints have had a stronger front row at any point in their history.

Saints could not add either the Challenge Cup or the World Club Challenge. Defeat at Wembley to Warrington and a 20-8 loss to Sydney Roosters at the start of 2020 probably prevents this side getting the nod as the RFL’s greatest ever in 125 years. Yet with Holbrook having now left for the Gold Coast it is a side which ensures that he does leave a legacy from his two-year stint. He had improved the team immeasurably from the dark days of the end of Cunningham’s time in charge but he needed that Grand Final win to secure his place in Saints folklore.

So there’s your five contenders, spanning just 26 of the 125 years of rugby league in the UK. They all have their strengths, phenomenal achievements and a generous serving of star quality. Which one is your favourite?

Challenge Cup Memories - Demolition Derby

The Challenge Cup quarter-finals were scheduled for this weekend. They’re not going to happen and we don’t know when we are going to see any live rugby league at all. This is a big deal. A constant source of disappointment and anxiety in uncertain times. When people - usually medical experts on Twitter - tell me there are more important things in life than rugby league it’s hard to argue. To those people I say ‘when are there not more important things in life than rugby league’? It was ever thus, long before Covid-19 rode roughshod over our way of life.

Whatever else is going on in the world - maybe even because of the grave events of the last few weeks and their effect on the mental and physical health of all of us - we need an outlet. Something to cheer us up. That’s the beauty of sport and rugby league. Even when it is suspended indefinitely it has a rich history that we can turn to. To that end, does anybody remember when Wigan were utter shite? I don’t mean just Tony Clubb or Sam Powell shite. I mean unrelentingly, embarrassingly dismal.

Let me jog your memory. It’s June 26 2005. Saints have reached the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup where they have been drawn at home to Wigan. Saints, led by Daniel Anderson following Ian Millward’s controversial sacking, are holders of the trophy having beaten Wigan 32-10 in the previous year’s final at Cardiff. On that occasion my cousin Alex and I deliberately missed the mini-bus back to St Helens in favour of a night out in the Welsh capital. If you were on that mini-bus and wasted valuable time waiting for us to come back, or if you were worried about our well being I apologise. What can I tell you? We were drunk.

Wigan were pretty average in 2005 and would get worse in 2006. The appointment of Millward following his sudden Saints exit had done little to turn around their fortunes. They escaped relegation from Super League in 2006 by only three points and some creative recruitment and accounting. Bradford and Great Britain forward Stuart Fielden arrived 18 matches in to the campaign with the Warriors rooted to the bottom of the table. We had already been asked to believe that Kris Radlinski, who had come out of retirement to help drag his side out of the mire, had done so for nothing but the love of the club. Whatever the truth of that, Wigan were docked four points for salary cap breaches relating to the 2006 season at a hearing in July of 2007. Having beaten the drop they probably reasoned that it was worth the hit. Saints and Bradford also incurred fines for breaches of the cap in 2006. It was all the rage back then.

Back to 2005. Wigan weren’t very good, but they were one of only three teams who had managed to beat Saints in all competitions leading in to their quarter-final meeting at Knowsley Road. Saints had lost at Leeds and been thrashed 44-6 at Hull FC, but it was perhaps the 22-20 defeat by Wigan at what was the JJB Stadium which hurt the most. Saints out scored their hosts four tries to three but the superior goal kicking of Danny Tickle proved the difference on a rare Good Friday evening kick-off between these two. By the time they met again Millward was in the Wigan dugout and his new club were on their way to missing the the top six playoffs by virtue of their hopeless points difference. The Challenge Cup was their last realistic hope of success.

The mind plays tricks. In researching this piece I was startled to find that Sean Long did not play in this game. The then 28-year-old had featured in the previous week’s 28-28 draw with London Broncos but did not play again until the end of July due to a broken wrist. Jon Wilkin is a man whose selection in the halfback role in later years under Kieron Cunningham caused grown men to have the kind of tantrums normally reserved for toddlers in the sweets and snacks aisle. He nevertheless formed a midfield pairing with Jason Hooper on this day, although the latter would be forced off with a dislocated shoulder in the first half. Hooper was an under-rated presence for Saints not known for his creativity. He spent much of his time as a destroyer at loose forward once Anderson brought Leon Pryce in from Bradford Bulls to partner Long.

Wilkin turned out to be good enough and then some. It was a tight first 20 minutes. Only Lee Gilmour’s converted try separated the two sides until the first quarter of the game drew to a close. At that point Terry Newton had his pass snaffled out of the air by Vinnie Anderson who raced half the length of the field to score under the posts. A few minutes later Nick Fozzard smashed his questionable forearm protector into the grill of three weak Wigan tackles to add Saints third try. Hooper left a parting gift as he crashed over after great work by Cunningham and Paul Sculthorpe and when the two-time Man Of Steel sent Willie Talau over on Saints left edge the match was pretty much over. Sculthorpe had time to add a drop-goal before half-time, that after Anderson had broken clear up the middle to put Paul Wellens in for Saints sixth try of what must have been a mortifying afternoon for Millward.

The second half wasn’t any kinder to the man who had won two Grand Finals and two Challenge Cups at Saints. Fozzard was involved again as the ball was switched right to Jamie Lyon who bamboozled the Wigan defence with his body swerve and footwork. The centre had support on his inside and the ball eventually found it’s way to Mark Edmondson via Sculthorpe for the first of one of the most unlikely hat-tricks in modern times. Edmondson scored 16 tries in 119 appearances for Saints before brief stints with Sydney Roosters and Salford. He managed three in less than half an hour here.

Fozzard’s try-scoring record is equally underwhelming. The prop managed just nine in 125 Saints appearances but he got two of them in this demolition derby. He took Sculthorpe’s pass to crash over before Lyon got in on the act. He swooped on Dennis Moran’s errant pass and scorched away untouched as Saints hit the half century. There were still 17 minutes left when Edmondson bagged his second after good work down the left channel by Anderson and Sculthorpe. Not long after Wilkin skipped around a bedraggled Wigan defence to find Edmondson on his inside to complete his hat-trick and take Saints through the 60-point barrier.

As shambolic as Wigan were on the day this was surreal. And Anderson’s side wasn’t done yet. Next to score was Ade Gardner. Playing on the left wing rather than the right wing he would become more familiar with, the ex-Barrow man dribbled through the Warriors edge defenders like Ryan Giggs toying with a group of under 10s at a summer soccer school. The last word went to a 19-year-old substitute prop by the name of James Graham. He darted over in the left corner after James Roby’s strong half-break had sent Mike Bennett on a marauding run downfield. The extras made the final score line a whopping 75-0 and left Saints one step from another final appearance.

Saints would go on to routinely win the League Leaders Shield but it all fell apart in the Challenge Cup and the Super League playoffs. Long suffered a season ending injury in a 38-12 win at Wigan just before the end of the regular campaign. Saints couldn’t repeat their heroics without him and slipped to playoff defeats to Bradford Bulls and Leeds Rhinos who would both go on to contest the Grand Final. The 34-8 Challenge Cup semi-final loss to Hull FC at Huddersfield was a much greater shock. The Airlie Birds lifted the cup with a thrilling final victory over Leeds.

Saints would win it all in 2006. The League Leaders Shield, the Super League Grand Final and the Challenge Cup and the BBC’s Sports Review Of The Year Team Of The Year Award. Possibly even Big Brother and one of Dale Winton’s National Lottery game shows. It is thought by many that the 2006 side is one of Saints best ever and certainly one of the best to be found anywhere in the Super League era. Yet it’s doubtful that they ever produced a performance as powerful and ruthless as the 2005 drubbing of Ian Millward’s Wigan.

There. Wasn’t that more fun than the news?