1971 Challenge Cup Final

[THE RED ROOSTER]

Just watched the 1971 Challenge Cup Final on Our League. First Impressions.

Four tackles never let the game flow, it make the kicking game more important with the game itself more stop start .

Uncontestd scrums an absolute mess, good job they decreased the value of a drop goal to 1 point the following season

Alex Murphy would have been well suited to modern Rugby League.

Leigh Fans adopting the Liverpool FC chant of your never walk alone referenced by Eddie Waring near the end

And the national anthem played twice once pre=-match once post match after the trophy presentation

49 Years ago but Life on Mars Indeed

 

[Oxford]

2 hours ago, THE RED ROOSTER said:

Just watched the 1971 Challenge Cup Final on Our League. First Impressions.

Four tackles never let the game flow, it make the kicking game more important with the game itself more stop start .

Uncontestd scrums an absolute mess, good job they decreased the value of a drop goal to 1 point the following season

Alex Murphy would have been well suited to modern Rugby League.

Leigh Fans adopting the Liverpool FC chant of your never walk alone referenced by Eddie Waring near the end

And the national anthem played twice once pre=-match once post match after the trophy presentation

49 Years ago but Life on Mars Indeed

 

I've liked TGG in all the guises  i've seen but I found this really interesting.

"Alex Murphy would have been well suited to modern Rugby League." Very True

[JDINTHEHIZZOUSE]

Wasn't born then((wind it in you lot) and although this may be Leigh's finest moment,my proudest moment was seeing a photo of my mum(78,still has a season ticket) holding the challenge cup with the MOST beautiful smile on her face. She was one of the founders of the original Leigh supporters club too, maybe not the greatest feat, but makes me proud of her,well done mum.

[Damien]

2 minutes ago, JDINTHEHIZZOUSE said:

Wasn't born then((wind it in you lot) and although this may be Leigh's finest moment,my proudest moment was seeing a photo of my mum(78,still has a season ticket) holding the challenge cup with the MOST beautiful smile on her face. She was one of the founders of the original Leigh supporters club too, maybe not the greatest feat, but makes me proud of her,well done mum.

That's great.

[Leyther_Matt]

Seen the game a hundred times over the years. I wasn’t even a glint in the eye of my (Huddersfield supporting) dad, but my word RL in those days was a tough watch.  Still, I’d have given anything to have been there. 

*Point of order, You’ll Never Walk Alone was sung by every set of fans in football and RL for decades rather than just Celtic and Liverpool fans. To the extent that it was still sung at Old Trafford until the 1980s and as far as Bolton fans at the 1995 play off final and I’ve even got a recollection (possibly clouded by the tears in my eyes) of Dewsbury fans singing it at the Grand Final in 2000. 

[M j M]

It's a shame that what some view as Leigh's finest hour was founded on the most notorious bit of cheating seen at Wembley. The club must have had better days than that in their history?

[Man of Kent]

There don’t seem to be many classic matches in the four-tackle rule era. As with a six-ball over, a set of six is like baby bear’s porridge. Just right.

[Oxford]

11 hours ago, JDINTHEHIZZOUSE said:

Wasn't born then((wind it in you lot) and although this may be Leigh's finest moment,my proudest moment was seeing a photo of my mum(78,still has a season ticket) holding the challenge cup with the MOST beautiful smile on her face. She was one of the founders of the original Leigh supporters club too, maybe not the greatest feat, but makes me proud of her,well done mum.

Sounds like one of the finest moments to me and I'm a Salford fan; not many people know that!

[koli]

1972 Saints v Leeds was a fair match.

[Oxford]

10 hours ago, Leyther_Matt said:

Still, I’d have given anything to have been there. 

Hope this doesn't turn into a selling your soul to the Devil thread as I can't imagine how many of us would turn up in the past, just to have been there.

 

[GUBRATS]

10 hours ago, M j M said:

It's a shame that what some view as Leigh's finest hour was founded on the most notorious bit of cheating seen at Wembley. The club must have had better days than that in their history?

No idea what you are talking about

[Niels]

I was only a boy but I remember Leigh completely outplayed them. They were far more enthusiastic and the better side even at 13 v 13.

Leeds lost their discipline and were poor. It wasn't even close. 

A second cousin of mine, Barry Seabourne, played for Leeds at scrum half that day.  He also played for Bradford Northern in a later final against Featherstone for which he was also on the losing side.

 

 

[Snowys Backside]

As a Leigh fan, still love watching this.

I must say though, it was one hell of a niggly,dirty game and it takes a lot for Billy T to give a red.

If you pause it, you can see Haynes move toward Murphy and that's it. The red card shown seconds later must indicate that Haynes stuck one on him. He didn't seem to care did he ?

[sentoffagain2]

4 hours ago, THE RED ROOSTER said:

Unfortuantely I will not be around by then to comment.

Four other things I failed to mention in my OP. Firstly the ginger No 8 for Leeds basically swung a right hook at a prone Leigh player just before half time. There was a penalty given to Leigh but I am not sure that was the reason.

The second point is the front on kicking style from both clubs. a style either not in use or very rarely used these days with the soccer style conversion / penalty attempts. I would love to know how fans would have responded to Marc Sneyd's kicking style back then.

Sid Hynes was sent off for "butting" yet back then there was no replay of the incident . These days that would have been given about 6/7 replays in super slow motion with the pundits chewing the fat over it.

Finally, something I remember from the late 1970's / 1980's, the "Magic Sponge" - No matter how much of a bell ringer you were on the end of the application of water on a sponge would get you back in the game provided you wer not spark out or with something broken. No Head Injury Assessments then although to be fair players were less "chiselled" then than they are now and there is a great deal of difference in being hit by someone with 18 stone of solid muscle as opposed to 18 stone with a lot of "relaxed" muscle.

 

 

The ginger number 8 for Leeds was John Burke Wakey, Leeds,and Keighley.He played close to the edge and was sent off numerous times.I had the pleasure of playing against him in secondary school.He went to St Austins Wakefield.

[Willforminis]

20 hours ago, Leyther_Matt said:

Seen the game a hundred times over the years. I wasn’t even a glint in the eye of my (Huddersfield supporting) dad, but my word RL in those days was a tough watch.  Still, I’d have given anything to have been there. 

*Point of order, You’ll Never Walk Alone was sung by every set of fans in football and RL for decades rather than just Celtic and Liverpool fans. To the extent that it was still sung at Old Trafford until the 1980s and as far as Bolton fans at the 1995 play off final and I’ve even got a recollection (possibly clouded by the tears in my eyes) of Dewsbury fans singing it at the Grand Final in 2000. 

We all used to sing it at last orders in the pubs.( Ten pints down the line)

[bobrock]

23 hours ago, THE RED ROOSTER said:

Just watched the 1971 Challenge Cup Final on Our League. First Impressions.

Four tackles never let the game flow, it make the kicking game more important with the game itself more stop start .

Uncontestd scrums an absolute mess, good job they decreased the value of a drop goal to 1 point the following season

 

 

I have watched a little and honestly it seems to me that the scrum were a mess exactly because they were contested. And that's why so many of them were won against the head, as I've seen quite often in footage of games of the 70s and 80s, including the famous Wigan-Hull where an awful lot of them led to a penalty. Hookers hanging to their front row team mates trying to strike the ball from every position and scrum halves trying to throw the ball in like they were basketball players. No wonder they had to be fixed. I see why you think the union scrums are boring, but don't tell me the league scrums were a fair and clean way to restart the game.

[koli]

Contested scrums were certainly messy but unlike Union scrums were packed down and fed quickly.They certainly added an element of unpredictability with a relatively high percentage going against the head.

[bobrock]

5 hours ago, koli said:

Contested scrums were certainly messy but unlike Union scrums were packed down and fed quickly.They certainly added an element of unpredictability with a relatively high percentage going against the head.

I tend to agree, to some extent, but I'm trying to remember how many times I've read in this forum about the union scrum being contested ( and therefor allowing to win the ball against the head ) as a "reward  for bad handling".