When Warrington and Wakefield walk out at Leigh on Saturday afternoon, it will be hard not to think back to a year ago when the Wolves’ Challenge Cup final ambitions were last crushed by a side coached by Chris Chester.
Then Chester’s Hull KR won 26-18 to reach the final for the first time in 29 years and the 37-year-old intends to make history again with Wakefield by helping the side he supported as a child to reach Wembley for the first time since he was seven months old.
Wakefield remain the underdogs; Wolves are the eight-time winners of the Challenge Cup looking to end a four‑year exile from the final. But Chester’s side are arguably Super League’s biggest success story this year – and Warrington fans will need no reminding of what happened 12 months ago, when they were overwhelming favourites to make it to Wembley.
This time, there is an extra element of emotion involved for Chester, who grew up on the terraces at Belle Vue a Wakefield fan, and he is in no doubt where victory with Trinity this year would rank compared to the triumph with the Robins last year.
“It would better it without a doubt,” he says. “There’d be no prouder person than me to get Wakefield back to Wembley after so long. I’ve got family going down to the game and I was very proud to get this job, but it’d be even more humbling to walk out at Wembley with this group of players.”
However, there is one clear difference between the upset last year and the prospect of another this time round, and that is Warrington themselves. Last year they were a side plagued with inconsistency and injuries, but this year they are a very different beast indeed.
The form of Kurt Gidley, the former Australian international who arrived at the start of this year from the National Rugby League, has been key to Warrington’s resurgence as one of the sport’s leading forces in 2016. And the 34-year-old has his own motivation to reach Wembley, as it would give him an opportunity to match older brother Matt’s success in the Challenge Cup.
He was a Wembley winner in 2007 and 2008 with St Helens, and Gidley admits the prospect of following in Matt’s footsteps and appearing at Wembley is a tantalising prospect. “Since he’s retired he mentioned how great an experience it was to win the competition, and I’d love to follow in his footsteps and be part of history,” he says. “I watched plenty of Matt’s games when he was at St Helens and I saw his Wembley wins – they were incredible.”
Yet Gidley is not the only veteran hunting a debut appearance at Wembley. The Wakefield forward Nick Scruton appeared in two semi-finals earlier in his career at Leeds, but with the Wildcats more accustomed to fighting relegation in recent years the 31-year-old admits he felt his chance to play in a cup final had passed him by.
But Scruton, like Gidley, is now within 80 minutes of realising a goal which has been a lifelong dream. “I thought I’d missed out on Wembley,” he says. “With only a couple of years left to play, you start to think you’ll never get there.
“It’s what you dream about as a kid, watching the cup final on the BBC. If I can get there and make my two little boys proud, it’ll be a dream come true for them to see me walk out at Wembley. It’ll be the highlight of my career without a doubt.”
Come 5pm on Saturday, someone will be making history. Whether it is Gidley, moving a step closer to following in his brother’s footsteps or Chester, becoming the first coach to guide two different teams to the final in successive years, remains to be seen.
