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?