Super League Greatest Ever 13 - 25 Years On

If you are kind enough to be a regular reader of this column you will notice that it has been quiet around here for a while. There’s a couple of reasons for this. One is that if we are honest there is not much happening in rugby league beyond the continued speculation around if, when and how the sport will resume in 2020. The other is that it is difficult to make any observations without Arthur Angrybloke from the small village of Furious trying to shame you for talking about anything that might be enjoyed while ‘people are dying’. But if the Minister Of Skiving can tell everyone to get back to work in such circumstances then I suggest that this column won’t do any major damage to the ongoing battle with Covid-19.

So, what to discuss? Well, helpfully for anyone looking to whack out a few hundred words that might provoke non-Covid discussion the Super League website are inviting visitors to select their best ever 13 from the 24 and a bit seasons of the competition since its inception in 1996. This I have done, in the great hope that you will shout at me for leaving out James Roby rather than for the heinous crime of contemplating rugby league in a pandemic.

Full Back - Paul Wellens

The site offers you eight options for the number one jersey but realistically it was only ever between two. Kris Radlinski was the only name that came close to shifting that of Wellens from my in no way biased selection. You can make a case for either, but I’d ask you to bear in mind that Radlinski’s career at Wigan started before Super League and ended in 2005. He did return in 2006, apparently for no fee and out of the goodness of his heart as Wigan defied the odds and the salary cap to avoid an unthinkable relegation from the top flight. Yet the 10 Super League seasons he managed and the 322 career appearances for Wigan are dwarfed by Wellens’ 17 Super League seasons with Saints during which he made 499 appearances and scored 231 tries. While Radlinski was blessed with more pace than Wellens, spending some time on the wing in his early days, Wellens compensated for a perceived lack of speed with an other-worldly ability to be in the right place at the right time. His positioning and reading of the game had to be faultless and he was every bit as reliable under pressure or a high bomb as Radlinski. A close call, but it’s Paul.

Right Wing - Jason Robinson

Robinson’s Super League career was relatively short, but how can you leave him out? Like Radlinski he first played for Wigan in the years leading up to Super League and by the end of its fifth season in 2000 had taken the decision to go off and conquer the rugby union world. That he did so is no surprise since he had all of the transferable skills needed to succeed in either code. Blindingly quick, especially off the mark from a standing start, he could change direction faster than anyone the game had ever seen to that point. He scored 171 tries in 281 appearances for Wigan, including the winner in the inaugural Super League Grand Final in 1998. That was actually the only honour the Warriors won in the Super League era before Robinson left for the other code but he just has to be in this team because he transcends rugby league in a way that few others who have played the game have managed.

Right Centre - Jamie Lyon

The Australian star was only with Saints and Super League for two years and I can tell you from personal experience that a good chunk of that time was spent at Nexus. Yet the period we are concentrating on from 1996 to the present day has never seen anyone who could do everything expected of an elite centre so spectacularly well as Lyon. There have been more powerful players in the position, men whose combination of pace and strength made them almost unstoppable. There have been great creators, men who didn’t raise any eyebrows with their try-scoring exploits but who made their winger’s job a much easier one. Lyon could be both creator and prolific scorer, and he could also kick goals. Searingly quick, he had a body swerve that put defenders in a different time zone. Part of the treble winning team of 2006, perhaps the greatest of all Saints teams, Lyon bagged 46 tries and 206 goals in 63 appearances in the red vee. Not until Ben Barba arrived in 2018 did we see another import at Saints who could dominate the league in the way Lyon did. And he gave everything in every minute he played before returning to the NRL, which is perhaps not something that can be said about Barba.

Left Centre - Paul Newlove

Hands up those of you who picked your own teams who went with Keith Senior ahead of Newlove? Be gone with your nonsense. Senior was a great player but comparisons with Newlove are fanciful. Newlove was a freak, playing international rugby league at 18 years of age and going on to play over 200 times for Saints in a glorious eight-year spell. His arrival from a pre-Bullmania Bradford Northern in 1995 was the catalyst for Saints establishing themselves as the dominant force throughout the first decade of Super League. We were only two years on from the depressing loss of Gary Connolly who had joined Wigan in 1993. This writer thought we would might not see a British centre in Connolly’s class in a Saints shirt for a generation.

Newlove more than filled the void, though he was different in style to Connolly. Where Connolly was defensively solid and had guile and imagination to create for others, Newlove was a destructive force who usually didn’t need any help finishing his breaks. At times he would literally carry defenders over the line with him. You might catch him, but you weren’t stopping him. He possessed the most outrageous fend perhaps in the history of the game. He would arch his back as a tackler approached and then just effortlessly swat them away like mere irritants. All without breaking stride. Newlove scored 134 tries for Saints, and it felt like most of them came in those early Super League seasons when he was unplayable as the balance of power in the game shifted across Billinge Lump. An absolute game changer of a player in the broadest sense. Keith Senior.... Pffft...

Left Wing - Lesley Vainikolo

The Volcano, as he was known when he joined the Bradford Bulls from Canberra Raiders in 2002, arguably redefined the winger’s role in Super League. Before then the best wingers were either slight but athletic, gazelle-like flyers in the Martin Offiah mould or short, elusive whirling dervishes like Robinson. Then along came Vainikolo to prove that you could be as big as anyone in the pack and still have speed and finishing instincts equal to anyone.

In a five-year spell the New Zealand international scored 149 tries for the Bulls, winning Grand Finals in 2003 and 2005 and the Challenge Cup in 2003. Along with Leeds Rhinos legend Danny McGuire, Vainikolo set the record for the most tries scored in a single Super League season when he grabbed 38 in 2004. Yet alongside his try-scoring exploits it was Vainikolo’s ability to make hard yards inside his own quarter on kick returns and early in the tackle count which made him such an important member of Brian Noble’s Bulls side.

Stand-Off - Henry Paul

Wigan may have lost their aura of invincibility with the advent of Super League but they were still a threat. Saints won that inaugural title by a single point in 1996 after Wigan were held to an 18-18 draw at London Broncos that proved pivotal. They handed Saints a 35-19 thumping at Central Park that could have cost Saints everything. Whenever Saints faced Wigan during his spell there between 1994-1998 it was the name of Henry Paul on the opposing team sheet that troubled me most.

Blessed with dazzling footwork and magical ball-handling skills, Paul had helped Wigan to the title in the two seasons prior to Super League having joined them from Wakefield Trinity. He was part of Wigan’s Grand Final-winning line-up of 1998 when they saw off Leeds Rhinos before teaming up with his brother Robbie at Bradford. There he added the 2000 Challenge Cup to the one he had won with Wigan in 1995 before his third title arrived at the expense of the Warriors. The Bulls cruised past his former club in the 2001 Grand Final, winning 37-6. In that season Paul set a then world record, landing 35 consecutive successful goals as he mastered the art. But it is for his ability to break a game open with the unexpected, those moments that were so rare in players then and even more so now, that seal his place in my selection.

Scrum Half - Sean Long

The easiest selection of them all. Discarded by his boyhood club Wigan, Long was picked up by Widnes Vikings were some impressive displays earned him another shot at the big league with Saints. It was very much shit or bust for Long at that time. His talent was undoubted but clearly some of his behavioural issues early in his career had given Wigan cause for concern. Saints already had a legend in the scrum half position, another ex-Wigan man who sometimes found unusual ways to pass the time off the field in Bobbie Goulding. So life at Saints for Long began as a stand-off, wearing the number 3 shirt and playing as a pure runner while leaving the organising to Goulding.

Within a year Goulding had blown his top once too often and it was to Long that Saints turned. He developed from elusive runner and support player into the greatest scrum half that Super League has ever seen. It is debatable whether there has ever been a better exponent of halfback skills in the history of the British game. Long’s performance in the 2004 Challenge Cup final win over Wigan serves as an example of how to play halfback as near to perfectly as possible. Long always had speed to burn but by 2004 he had added organisational skills, decision making and a kicking game that meant turning the ball over to the opposition could be used as a weapon to assist the attacking game soon after.

In 12 years at Saints Long won four Grand Finals, and five Challenge Cups and was part of the sides that won World Club Challenge matches with Brisbane Broncos in 2001 and 2007. He had progressed to club captain by the time of the second of those victories while other individual accolades include the 2000 Man Of Steel Award and three Lance Todd trophies for man of match performances in the Challenge Cup finals of 2004, 2006 and in 2007 when he shared the award with Wellens. The greatest. No argument.

Prop Forward - Stuart Fielden

One of the main reasons for the Bradford Bulls success in the first 10 years of Super League was their power. Their blueprint was to blow opponents away in the forwards, pioneering the four-pronged prop forward corps that is now a routine component of any Super League match day 17. Toronto’s moany, ring-hoarding coach Brian McDermott was a mainstay of the group as were future Saint Paul Anderson and Kiwi wrecking ball Joe Vagana. Yet perhaps the pick of the bunch was Fielden.

Making your debut in the pack at 17 is hard enough, doing so for the then defending Super League champions within such a physical game plan marks you out as something special. Fielden won three Grand Finals, two Challenge Cups and two world titles with the Bulls before their money ran out and he was one of those sacrificed in the financial fallout. Some rather more creative accounting saw him pitch up at Wigan where he added another Grand final success in 2010. Fielden never made it to the NRL but that was surely a matter of choice. He was named in the international team of the year on four occasions and with 25 Great Britain caps and 10 England appearances he was as revered on the other side of the rugby league world as any other Englishman.

Hooker - Kieron Cunningham.

The younger element of the TSBYQL readership, if such a group exists, will probably be howling at my decision not to include James Roby here. There is little argument that Roby is an all-time great. A serial winner and now club captain who has, despite his success, also felt what it is like to have the burden of being the only world class performer on an otherwise fairly middling team. As a pure rugby league player and measured by his impact on a team and on the game Roby is probably superior to half a dozen of the players in this selection. But unless you are Kyle Walker in lockdown you cannot play with 13 hookers. You can only have one (Sorry Kyle, maybe that’ll increase in phase 2) so it has to be Kieron Cunningham.

Put simply I have never seen another rugby league player like Kieron Cunningham. For 17 years he dominated and helped to reinvent the position, turning the dummy half role into one of the most creative on the field. His mix of fast, accurate distribution and an obdurate refusal to accept being tackled caused outright mayhem in the early years of summer rugby. Call me nostalgic but I still get excited if I hear Chumbawamba’s tub-thumping on the radio. Ironic then that tub-thumping was exactly what Cunningham accused a section of the fans of engaging in when the noise around Jack Owens got a little too loud during the former Welsh international’s tepid coaching stint.

In many ways Cunningham’s difficult spell as head coach has clouded the memory of some fans about Cunningham the player. Majestic isn’t too strong a word for the greatest of all the players I have seen in the red vee. Admittedly I started with a relatively low bar in the mid-80s, but the Super League has seen us blessed with some of the game’s greats of whom for me Cunningham is the absolute standout. Almost 500 appearances for Saints, five Super League titles, seven Challenge Cup wins, two world titles and 23 international appearances for Wales and Great Britain. A bona fide legend. Sorry James. And Kyle.

Prop Forward - James Graham

Considering its proximity to several big rugby league clubs there have been surprisingly few top class players from the city of Liverpool. James Graham has to be the best of them by some distance. Like Fielden he made his debut short of his 18th birthday and established himself as the premier prop forward in world rugby league by the time of his departure to Canterbury Bulldogs in 2011. He has since moved on to St George-Illawarra Dragons and is closing in on 200 appearances in the NRL having made 245 for Saints.

Graham has a reputation of being a bit of a Jonah in Grand Finals having played in all five of Saints’ consecutive Old Trafford defeats in 2007-2011. He has lost two more in the NRL with the Bulldogs. Yet he has still found time to win one Super League Grand Final (2006) and three Challenge Cup finals (2006-2008). If nothing else this is evidence that any team featuring Graham in its ranks over the last 15 years has been a serious contender for honours, even if they haven’t always got over the line. This is not a coincidence. Graham isn’t just a battering ram either. He is famed among modern forwards for his ability to pass before the line where necessary. He can run through you or over you too, but there is a degree of subtlety to his game that is not present in many front rowers.

In the last week or so there has been some talk of a return to Saints for 2021. He will be 35 by then and perhaps not at the peak required to be an adequate replacement for the outgoing Luke Thompson. Yet if you can ignore the amount of money it would cost to tempt him back he would probably remain more than good enough to stand out in Super League and perhaps a great mentor for Matty Lees and Jack Ashworth. Whether he comes back or not he has already cemented his position among the greats of Saints and Super League.

Second Row - Jamie Peacock

I read recently that a poll once found that former Bradford and Leeds forward Jamie Peacock was the only man voted into an all-Super League team in two positions. We’re not going down that route. Fans of Netflix sports documentary blockbuster The Last Dance will accept that even the great Michael Jordan cannot play two positions at once. Peacock is not in that category in terms of talent but that does not stop him from being one of the best prop forwards and second row forwards of the modern era albeit at different times of his career.

Mainly because the alternatives at prop were tastier than those at second row I have gone for Bradford Bulls-era Peacock. Back then he was a rangy, wide running back rower able to capitalise on the havoc wreaked by the Bulls prop group (see Stuart Fielden). Alongside Fielden Peacock helped Bradford win three Super League Grand Finals, the last of them as captain in 2005 before he crossed the West Yorkshire divide to turn out for boyhood club Leeds Rhinos.

Converting to the front row in his later years Peacock added a further six Super League rings to his collection, taking his total to a ridiculous nine. Jordan only managed six in his whole career, although he did interrupt it to pretend to be a baseball player for a while. But nine? Preposterous. Expect Jordan to come out of retirement again when he finds out.

Peacock was in his late 30s by the time a short spell with Hull KR brought his career to an end. By that time he had racked up 47 international appearances and won four Challenge Cups. Still only good enough for one spot in this team.

Second Row - Chris Joynt

Chris Joynt is the one player in this selection that might be able to lay claim to being slightly under-rated. All of the others are widely recognised as greats of the game with all the bells and whistles that status brings with it. Yet when the conversation about greats of the modern game crops up you rarely hear the name of the former Saints captain.

This is largely a style issue. Although he was capable of eye-catching moments such as his famous Wide To West try in a playoff win over Bradford Bulls in 2000, Joynt was there for the less noticeable parts of the game. Tackling, carting the ball up in his own half, leadership, setting an example. Some of these things don’t often make the highlight reels but every team needs players willing to do them.

Aside from that iconic try against the Bulls most of Joynt’s flashier moments pre-date Super League. When he joined Saints from Oldham in 1992 he was an elusive back rower with good hands very much in the club’s tradition of the time. He would later feature at prop at international level where our sport’s whacky rules allowed him to turn out for all of England, Ireland and Great Britain at various times. Yet at Saints he stayed largely in the second row, skippering the side from 1997-2003 during which time he lifted two Challenge Cups and three Super League Grand Final trophies. He also led Saints to their memorable World Club Challenge victory over Brisbane Broncos in 2001.

Self-proclaimed rules experts remember him for an alleged voluntary tackle in the dying moments of the 2002 Grand Final. Again Bradford were the victims as James Lowes’ tears failed to persuade referee Russell Smith to award what would have been a kickable penalty as Joynt seemed to go to ground with nobody near him. Yet he then got up without attempting to play the ball first so perhaps Smith got it right. Either way it was in the paper the next day that Saints had won.

In all Joynt amassed 383 appearances for Saints and 29 more at international level. A decorated player of outstanding consistency and a worthy if under-stated member of this line-up.

Loose Forward - Paul Sculthorpe

Some say Paul Sculthorpe was the best rugby league player they have seen in the Super League era and one of the best ever. He had it all. Pace, strength, toughness, intelligence and a winning mentality. He arrived at Saints from Warrington in 1997 for a then world record fee for a forward of £375,000. Yet he was so much more than a forward, slotting in at stand-off if the need arose at both club and international level. He was named Man Of Steel in both 2001 and 2002, the first man in the history of the award to win it in consecutive seasons.

Scunthorpe’s roll of honours is impressive. He won three Grand Finals with Saints and a further four Challenge Cup finals, captaining the side in two of those. Yet injury deprived him of an even greater haul. Sculthorpe made 261 appearances for Saints in just over a decade at the club. That doesn’t compare with the figures posted by Wellens and Cunningham who had far greater longevity and more luck with injuries during their time. The mind boggles at what Sculthorpe might have achieved if he had stayed fit for the length of time that some of his illustrious colleagues managed.

Though he was one of the first names on the sheet at international level he was probably too often shunted into the stand-off role instead of playing in his favoured loose forward slot. This was due mainly to the lack of a natural stand-off that any Great Britain coach trusted but also as a way of accommodating both Sculthorpe and Andy Farrrell in the line-up. It never quite worked out despite the occasional victory over the Australians and the wait for a first Ashes series win since 1970 continues. Sculthorpe played 30 times for either England or Great Britain between 1996-2006.

In terms of all-around rugby league talents and attributes Sculthorpe has few equals and gets the nod ahead of Farrell and Kevin Sinfield, despite playing over 100 games fewer than the former and only just over half as many as the latter. He was that good.