St Helens: champions of the world. The Merseyside town with a population barely reaching 100,000 has been the beating heart of the Super League in recent years, but now, it is home to the world’s best rugby league side.
This pulsating contest was decided in dramatic fashion, Lewis Dodd kicking a golden point in overtime, but should not be described without first explaining the context that makes this result all the more incredible. St Helens spend around a third of what NRL clubs do on salary. Their opponents here were littered with players who have just helped Penrith win back-to-back NRL titles. That does not happen all that often.
The Panthers included seven players who featured in last year’s World Cup final, too. St Helens were not just written off by the home experts, they were not expected to compete. But they came out on top in the World Club Challenge, further solidifying their place as one of the greatest club sides the British game has produced.
Not since Wigan in 1994 has an English side travelled across the world and beaten an Australian team in their own backyard. That victory for Wigan against Brisbane is regarded as one of the great performances by a Super League outfit; this one may even top it when you consider just how much the odds were stacked against St Helens. This club, and this team, seems to enjoy achieving what nobody thinks they are capable of, underlined by their historic four consecutive Super League titles.
How they won it was just as remarkable. For most of the night they kept Penrith’s star-studded attack at arm’s length, forging a 12-0 lead courtesy of tries from Jack Welsby and Konrad Hurrell. Welsby was the game’s outstanding player and will almost certainly court interest from Australian suitors after this display, but his heart, like so many of this St Helens squad, is with the new world champions.
You expected Penrith to respond on home turf and they did so in the second half. Izack Tago’s try on the hour mark halved the deficit and in doing so, piled the pressure back on the Saints, who had defended heroically for most of the first 40 minutes. But time and time again, they denied Penrith and it looked like they would hold on.
Penrith had other ideas though, and in the final minute Stephen Crichton’s towering kick was fumbled by Welsby and Brian To’o collected to score the Panthers’ second. Nathan Cleary nervelessly converted from out wide to send the game to extra-time. You feared Saints, having come so close, would fail to drag themselves off the floor for the golden point.
Shaun Kenny-Dowall stormed over for a hat-trick as Hull KR began the new Betfred Super League season in stirring fashion with a 27-18 win over Wigan.
The Rovers captain shattered any chance of a Wigan recovery when he finished off a slick move out left in the dying minutes.
Hit by a yellow card for Morgan Smithies for a late tackle midway through the second half, Matt Peet’s men faded after a bright start and were hampered by Harry Smith’s failure to kick all but one of four conversions.
It took just three minutes for the reign of new Rovers coach Willie Peters, who played for Wigan in their 2000 Grand Final loss to St Helens, to get off to the best of starts when Ryan Hall went over in the left corner.
For Wigan, Jai Field raced onto Cade Cust’s kick to put the visitors in front. More pressure told midway through the first period when Kai Pearce Paul dropped onto Cust’s clever grubber, but Smith was having an off-day with the boot and his third consecutive missed conversion meant Wigan sat only one score in front at 12-6.
Rovers rallied and were level on the half-hour mark after Kenny-Dowall sold the Warriors defence a delicious dummy. Lachlan Coote kicked the hosts level and Jordan Abdull’s drop-goal on the half-time hooter gave his side a one-point lead.
Kane Linnett burrowed over from dummy-half then Coote kicked his side seven points clear after Wigan were penalised for a dangerous tackle on Mikey Lewis inside their own 20.
The day got worse for Wigan, when Smithies was yellow-carded for a late barge on Lewis, and Rovers exploited their advantage when the irrepressible Kenny-Dowall went over.
Wigan finally got out of their own half through a quick counter from Cust down the left, feeding Wardle to cross on his competitive debut, and Smith belatedly found his range to reduce the deficit to 23-18.
But just when Wigan threatened a late twist, Rovers responded with a series of sharply-executed passes out to the left where Kenny-Dowall crossed for his third.
Not a chance. It was perhaps fitting that on a night won by homegrown players like Welsby and the 37-year-old James Roby, who continues to defy the laws of aging with a 70-minute all-action display, that it was another local lad who sealed victory. Crichton produced the decisive error, spilling the ball 30 metres from his own line, following a superb tackle from Hurrell that dislodged the ball from his grip.
The 21-year-old scrum-half Dodd, who spent most of last year out with an achilles injury, kept his nerve, kicking the drop goal that secured a third world title for the Saints, adding to those won in 2001 and 2007. This one, given the circumstances, will undoubtedly go down as the best.
