A Magic Day In 2008

I meant to write this closer to the Bank Holiday weekend when Magic should have been played. I’ve never been a huge advocate of Magic but when you haven’t seen a game of rugby league for over two months the thought of being beaten over the head with six of them in just over 24 hours seems far more appealing than it otherwise might. To prove the point I took annual leave and watched all eight NRL games over four days when it resumed last week and it didn’t feel like too much.

Let’s hope the resumption of our Super League season and the rest of this blog are worth waiting for. I’m taking you back to the summer of 2008. Boris Johnson took his first steps towards fucking the country by winning the London mayoral election, Portsmouth won the FA Cup, Rihanna and Leona Lewis were engaged in a tense warble-off at the top of the UK charts and proof was provided that box office figures do not reflect quality as Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull raked in $126million.

It was the second year of rugby league’s bold new enterprise, Millennium Magic, in which all 12 Super League teams gathered at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium to play a round of league fixtures. The first one had been deemed a success overall despite or maybe even in some small way because of its controversial ending. Kevin Sinfield was attempting to land a late penalty goal that would have earned a draw for Leeds Rhinos against the once mighty Bradford Bulls. His shot bounced away off the crossbar before falling kindly for the demonstrably offside Jordan Tansey to cross for a try to seal an unlikely 42-38 win. Video assistance was available - rugby league being 23 years ahead of football in that regard - but referee Steve Ganson decided to make his own mind up. Rather like Robert Hicks at last year’s Challenge Cup final but without the added grimness of Warrington winning a major trophy which tipped Eamonn McManus over the edge of reason.

Derbies were very much the thing in the early years of Magic. It was felt that they were the fixtures most likely to excite the fans. The hope was that fans would stay transfixed as Huddersfield and Wakefield duked it out rather than spend that time in the bar oiling themselves senseless on the cheapest beer they could find in South Wales. And so for the second year running Saints were paired with Wigan. Saints has beaten their rivals 34-18 in the inaugural event. Ordinarily the 2008 game might have been billed as a revenge mission for the Warriors but this was the start of the era we are still in now when great foes meet more often than you are currently allowed out for your exercise and your medication. This would be the fourth meeting since that first Magic Weekend and Saints had won them all by an aggregate of 85-34. It would be another year before Wigan would get the better of Saints again.

Coming into the clash both had been experiencing some iffy form. They had each lost five of their first 12 Super League games. This was unexpected for Saints who had won the League Leaders Shield for each of the previous three seasons and would do so for a fourth in 2008. By contrast two years earlier Wigan had not so much flirted with relegation but positively honey-trapped it like an undercover police officer in a cliched TV drama. They escaped and improved to a sixth-placed finish in 2007 but they had still not reached a Grand Final for five years, hadn’t won the League Leaders Shield in eight years and hadn’t been crowned champions for a decade. Expectation wouldn’t have weighed massively on coach Brian Noble with that sort of recent history at any other club. But this was Wigan, where regardless of the absolute state of their squad they book their Wembley tickets with their Christmas money and proclaim themselves a dark horse when they hobble into the playoffs like Hugh Laurie clanking down the corridor at Princeton—Plainsboro. There was still pressure on Noble.

Saints’ line-up should have provided the Wigan fans with all the anxiety they could handle. Packed with superstars they had four players that I consider all-time greats in the starting 13 (Paul Wellens, Sean Long, Kieron Cunningham and James Graham) and another on the bench in James Roby. Paul Sculthorpe was enduring an injury-ravaged final season with Saints and missed out to spare Wigan having to face a sixth. Outside of that group the options for coach Daniel Anderson weren’t too shabby either. Only 16 men have scored more tries for Saints than Ade Gardner, Matt Gidley played 11 State Of Origin games for New South Wales and 17 times for Australia while Chris Flannery also had Origin experience. Willie Talau and Jason Cayless were New Zealand internationals as was Francis Meli. The winger was slightly maligned by fans back then but would arguably be a standout now. Closer to home Leon Pryce and Lee Gilmour has arrived from Bradford Bulls and would end their careers with 32 Great Britain caps and a Boris Johnson-sized fridge full of medals between them.

On the face of it Wigan were bringing a half-eaten Curly-Wurly to a gunfight. Their star name was stand-off Trent Barrett but his two-year, 60-game stint never really hit the heights expected of a man who gained almost as much Origin and Australian Kangaroos experience throughout his career as Gidley. Barrett wasn’t awful, but he was probably more Josh Perry than Jamie Lyon in terms of impact. Pat Richards had a much longer and more successful Wigan career after making the switch from Wests Tigers. Thomas Leuluai and Sean O’Loughlin’s quality and longevity can be judged by the fact that they are still in the Warriors side in 2020. The one genuine British superstar in the ranks at the time was prop forward Stuart Fielden, drafted in two years earlier to help give relegation the slip.

After these individuals the Wigan group was one of nearly men. Of Richie Mathers’ and Darrell Gouldings. Paul Prescotts and Mickey Highams. On the bench that day was 22-year-old Tommy Coyle, who would make only five appearances for Wigan before a tour of the lower leagues that took in Halifax, Oldham, Hunslet, Whitehaven and Swinton among others. He came in to the squad after an injury to Phil Bailey. There’s probably a Phil Collins/Easy Lover joke in here somewhere but this Phil Bailey was a four-time Australian international and three-time Origin player who managed over 100 appearances for Wigan in case you’re struggling as much as I am to recall him. Yet he was out of this one with illness, giving Coyle an opportunity that he probably hasn’t forgotten.

Though the teams were level on points in the league table at the start of play it didn’t take long for the gap between them to begin to show. Only points difference separated third-placed Saints from fifth-placed Wigan when referee Phil Bentham blew the first whistle. Five minutes in it was Long who bagged the first try. Continuing his decade-long torment of his hometown club who had once released him Long darted over from dummy half to put Saints in front. He converted his own try to make it 6-0.

When listing the array of talent available to Anderson I didn’t mention the name of Jon Wilkin. A future captain of the club who would go on to make over 400 appearances for them. The 2008 Wilkin was a recent Great Britain international. He was next to go over after he was put through by Cayless and avoided the apologetic tackle attempt by Mathers. Long goaled again and Saints led 12-0 at a rate of only just lower than a point a minute.

Six minutes later Wigan drew up plans for their own demise. A pass near midfield was knocked backwards by Talau and scooped up by Meli. Wigan’s players seemed to stop in anticipation of a knock-on call from Bentham. As they hesitated Meli raced 50 metres in a display of what in the current climate would be viewed as admirable social distancing. Long’s third successful conversion gave Saints an 18-0 lead. The contest was as good as over in the first quarter. Thoughts may have even started to turn to the events of three years earlier when Saints had flogged Wigan 75-0 in a Challenge Cup tie at Knowsley Road.

Wigan held out for a spell after Meli’s effort, but would have been dismayed to see Roby entering the fray fresh from the bench after 25 minutes. He replaced Cunningham and within two minutes Saints went further ahead. Gidley spun brilliantly out of the tackle of Richards before placing a pin-point grubber on to which Gardner pounced. Long could not land the extras this time but Saints were putting on a show now at 22-0.

Barely three minutes later Long was creating more goal kicking practice for himself. His pass put Gilmour through a hole in the Wigan defensive line and the second row forward handed on to Talau to touch down. Long’s fourth goal of the evening made it 28-0 with only half an hour played. He was racking up the points, and added four more when he supported Pryce’s break inside his own half and went 55 metres to score Saints’ sixth try of the first half and his second. Long’s conversion made it 34-0. He wasn’t done there, adding an insulting drop-goal four minutes from half-time. It took the proverbial out of Wigan and was completely in keeping with Long’s personality and style of play. It would have been frowned upon perhaps when Mick Potter took over from Anderson the following year, or during the Building Pressure, Energy Battle years of the Cunningham philosophy. In 2008 it was joyful, almost funny, and Saints went to the break 35-0 up.

Then something odd happened. Wigan scored. A rare mistake inside his own quarter from Wellens gave Coyle the opportunity to make his mark. He fed Leuluai from dummy half and the New Zealander broke out of Long’s tackle to score. Richards could not convert but you can’t have everything Wigan fans. At least your lot were on the board now at 35-4.

Long’s response to this rude interruption to what had hitherto been a procession was to complete his hat-trick. Gidley was the creator, breaking the line before finding Long on his inside. It was Long’s fourth hat-trick for Saints but his first since a 54-12 win over Castleford Tigers at Knowsley Road five years earlier. It would also be his last. Long scored only another nine tries for Saints before moving to Hull FC at the end of 2009. Fittingly, his last try was also against Wigan and helped Saints reach the third of five consecutive Grand Finals at the expense of the old enemy. Though we may reflect now that we wish we hadn’t bothered going to Manchester until 2014.

Back to 2008. Saints led 41-4 at this point and their next score sparked the beginning of the famed Wigan Walk. To be fair to their fans they had endured 50 minutes of this outright pummelling before Talau grabbed his second. Wellens shimmied Goulding into one of the many attractive bars outside the Millennium Stadium and handed on to Talau to score. Long failed with the conversion but a 45-4 deficit was enough to convince a few Wigan fans that their time might be better spent elsewhere.

They had probably got far enough away not to have to listen to the roar that greeted Saints’ next score. Even when Long was making mistakes he profited. On 57 minutes he threw what NRL commentators refer to as a ‘bludger’ of a pass out to the right hand edge. It went to ground but bobbled around conveniently for Gardner to pick up and notch his brace. Long’s conversion made it 51-4 and was almost his last act of the day. Anderson withdrew his his halfback combination of Long and Pryce shortly after, presumably to spare Wigan further punishment.

It could have been a coincidence but that move preceded a mini Wigan fight back as first Harrison Hansen and then Higham got over for tries. Hansen’s was the result of a glorious short ball from Barrett as the former St George man showed a flash of his quality. Higham benefitted from an offload from Iafeta Paleaaesina to claim his meat pie. Richards made good on both conversions and Wigan were into double figures at 51-16.

Yet predictably, inevitably, it was Saints who had the last word. Nine minutes from time a move involving Graham, Wilkin and Wellens allowed Gilmour to score against the club for whom he played 108 times from 1997-2001. With Long off the field Gidley took the opportunity to notch the first of his six goals for Saints and complete the scoring at 57-16.

Saints would not lose again in 2008 until the Grand Final. They won 18 out of 19 games in all competitions after this Magic Massacre, the only blemish being a 16-16 draw with Wigan at Knowsley Road in September. They picked up the Challenge Cup during that run, beating Hull FC 28-16 at Wembley in what would turn out to be Sculthorpe’s last game for the club. Yet it was Leeds who were crowned champions. They had finished the regular season a point behind Saints but edged them 24-16 at Old Trafford thanks to a double from Danny McGuire and further scores from Lee Smith and Ryan Hall.

We can’t end on that note. Would it help if I told you that after this drubbing Wigan lost five more times in the league, including another 46-12 hiding by Saints on their own patch? They could only finish fourth before being eliminated from the race to Old Trafford by Leeds.

No. Thought not.