Sat 28th May: Challenge Cup Final: Huddersfield Giants v Wigan Warriors KO 15:00 (BBC One)

[Fevrover]

7 minutes ago, DimmestStar said:

Agree there were 3 occasions when Smithies might have been given a yellow card and certainly after the accumulative effect of all of them.

Disagree about Maurice Lindsay who if he had is way there would be no Hull FC or Hull KR. Maybe a red and black Humber seafarer's.XIII.  He loved the idea of mergers provided none of them involved Wigan.

Ken Davy is hard core Tory who keeps Huddersfield afloat with his millions. Without him they would be at least one division lower maybe two.

 

Calder ? No way merging with them two lol but he definitely looked after Wigan. Anyway that ship as sailed.

[Fevrover]

16 minutes ago, koli said:

Spurs over Wembley anytime for me.

Best stadium I’ve been to and generated a great atmosphere.

They close the main road in front of the stadium a couple of hours before kick off and that allows a good outside ground atmosphere to build despite the general rundown nature of the area.

Really enjoyed the day as a neutral today.

 

Not a patch on Wembley  Way ,Wembley for me definitely.

[WN83]

We pinched it really but it’s the result that matters and not the performance. It’s a good job as I felt we let the occasion got to us in a lot of ways. I thought Harry Smith was outstanding for us, alongside Morgan Smithies. They both took steps forward as players. He had a couple of iffy moments Smith but time and time again he challenged Huddersfield. 
 

As for the stadium, just superb. It’s impressive outside and in the bars but when you step out and see the arena, it’s just a different level. 

[Exiled Wiganer]

50 minutes ago, Old Frightful said:

Perhaps it was fitting that just eleven days after Maurice Lindsay passed, his team should lift the Challenge Cup. I would suggest though that, on the day, Huddersfield were the better side. When they held the 14-12 lead, and with time running out, I said to others in the pub, I don't like this because there's always a chance of Wigan getting a late score which would leave no chance of Hudds coming back, and so it happened.

Had James Child made the correct decision in sending Smithies to the bin for his first uppercut then things might have been different, he didn't and so Smithies carried on where he left off.

Really felt sorry for Ken Davy, would have been nice for him to see his team lift the Cup for the first time in yonks but they just fell a bit short.

Congrats to all the Wigan lot on here, commiserations to the Hudds lot, both teams participated in a very enjoyable Cup Final.

 

Oddly enough neither I nor any of the others in the exile party can remember a final we have seen where we have won the game in that manner. At half time I was saying to anyone who would listen that the attacking kick behind the line was clearly a waste of time…

As others have said, hats off to Smith and Smithies, and commiserations to the Giants. They deserved to get something from the game. Pace told in the end. 

[The Future is League]

10 minutes ago, Exiled Wiganer said:

Oddly enough neither I nor any of the others in the exile party can remember a final we have seen where we have won the game in that manner. At half time I was saying to anyone who would listen that the attacking kick behind the line was clearly a waste of time…

As others have said, hats off to Smith and Smithies, and commiserations to the Giants. They deserved to get something from the game. Pace told in the end. 

I think Wigan were slightly the fitter side and that for me showed at the death when the Giants looked very tired

[JohnM]

34 minutes ago, DimmestStar said:

Agree there were 3 occasions when Smithies might have been given a yellow card and certainly after the accumulative effect of all of them.

Disagree about Maurice Lindsay who if he had is way there would be no Hull FC or Hull KR. Maybe a red and black Humber seafarer's.XIII.  He loved the idea of mergers provided none of them involved Wigan.

Ken Davy is hard core Tory who keeps Huddersfield afloat with his millions. Without him they would be at least one division lower maybe two.

 

What has Davy's politics got to do with anything?  Why have a go at Lindsay? Show some respect.

[Dunbar]

26 minutes ago, WN83 said:

We pinched it really but it’s the result that matters and not the performance. It’s a good job as I felt we let the occasion got to us in a lot of ways. I thought Harry Smith was outstanding for us, alongside Morgan Smithies. They both took steps forward as players. He had a couple of iffy moments Smith but time and time again he challenged Huddersfield. 
 

As for the stadium, just superb. It’s impressive outside and in the bars but when you step out and see the arena, it’s just a different level. 

After seeing the last 20 live, I have gone back to the first 60.

This could be a breakout performance for Smith.  He took the line on more than he has and I remain convinced his tactical kicking game will be the best of any British player over the next 5 years or so.

[Exiled Wiganer]

11 minutes ago, The Future is League said:

I think Wigan were slightly the fitter side and that for me showed at the death when the Giants looked very tired

We seem to have a style where we sacrifice bigger players for better engines and more speed. So we often make less ground, and don’t dominate defensively, but we can strike decisively. We were losing both the semi and the final deep into the games until we had our Marshall moments… 

[Fevrover]

13 minutes ago, JohnM said:

What has Davy's politics got to do with anything?  Why have a go at Lindsay? Show some respect.

About as much as he showed certain teams.

[moorside roughyed]

Really wanted the Giants to win this one. Gutted for them. 

[Scubby]

8 minutes ago, moorside roughyed said:

Really wanted the Giants to win this one. Gutted for them. 

Thought McGilvary was going to crown a fine career with the match winning try. The feature on him before the game was inspirational.

[The Future is League]

1 hour ago, DimmestStar said:

Agree there were 3 occasions when Smithies might have been given a yellow card and certainly after the accumulative effect of all of them.

Disagree about Maurice Lindsay who if he had is way there would be no Hull FC or Hull KR. Maybe a red and black Humber seafarer's.XIII.  He loved the idea of mergers provided none of them involved Wigan.

Ken Davy is hard core Tory who keeps Huddersfield afloat with his millions. Without him they would be at least one division lower maybe two.

 

I like a majority of Rugby League couldn't give a monkeys who our chairman/owners vote for. I'm happy they keep our game and clubs alive with their input.

[Jim Prendle]

33 minutes ago, Fevrover said:

About as much as he showed certain teams.

This stupid disrespectful idea of merging teams has done the NRL a load of harm hasn’t it?

I think it’s about time some people grew up.

[Fevrover]

5 minutes ago, Jim Prendle said:

This stupid disrespectful idea of merging teams has done the NRL a load of harm hasn’t it?

I think it’s about time some people grew up.

Starting with you!

[Jim Prendle]

Just now, Fevrover said:

Starting with you!

I’m not the one disrespecting a recently deceased man who did more for British rugby league than you ever will, so why don’t you just go and have a lie down.

Thanks.

[Damien]

A shout out to the BBC who did a great job both before and after the game. The build up was a great mixture and the feature with McGilvary was fantastic.

[Fevrover]

2 minutes ago, Jim Prendle said:

I’m not the one disrespecting a recently deceased man who did more for British rugby league than you ever will, so why don’t you just go and have a lie down.

Thanks.

I take it you support Wigan ? Enough said ,goodnight.

[Barley Mow]

3 hours ago, Chris22 said:

...I assume Lolohea was kicking as Russell wasn't 100%. You win and lose as a team, but can't be denied that the misses were influential and some of them kickable...

In the words of my 8 year old:

"Dad, why do they keep making him kick the goals when he's just not very good at it?"

[Jim Prendle]

13 minutes ago, Fevrover said:

I take it you support Wigan ? Enough said ,goodnight.

What’s that got to do with anything?

How’s your lie down going?

[Ant]

Absolutely gutted at that result, not sure we deserved to lose that. Losing Hill after 20 mins was always going to hurt us though 

[moorside roughyed]

49 minutes ago, Scubby said:

Thought McGilvary was going to crown a fine career with the match winning try. The feature on him before the game was inspirational.

Quality player,end of.

[Jughead]

Another very good final after a recent history of good and close finals, so I’m pleased it was a good watch from a neutral perspective. 

Bearing in mind that I have watched it first hand and haven’t seen replays, I thought it was a very good final, as any is that is undecided until the last knockings and overall, it was a fairly even game. Huddersfield the better in the first half, they didn’t tend to make any mistakes or errors and if they turned the ball over it was in Wigan territory, so less damaging than Wigan who turned over a lot of ball in their twenty. 

There was the expected reaction from Wigan and the early try, where Leutele shot out of the line, was a massive lifeline. Where Huddersfield were mistake free for the most part in the first half they seemed to make more errors and Wigan cleaned their game up and grew into it. 

I haven’t seen the winning try yet, I will watch it again tomorrow, it looked like a forward pass in the build up but it was great play to win any final and Tui Lolohea will be kicking himself for his kicking today.

As for the day and the ground, I can’t have many complaints. It’s a great stadium and they’ve really tried to get people inside spending money than arriving late and the bar area I went in (the 1892 Bar) was lovely, offered a view of the pitch and had a couple of TV’s in. The vantage point from just shy of the halfway line was excellent. I didn’t think it had the leg room Club Wembley has but it was still very good. I’m upset the crowd was as low as it was, though it looked about what it was reported, and alarm bells should be ringing loudly in the ears of absolutely everyone attached to the game. 

I’m not the target audience for growing the Challenge Cup Final, I know that but today was my 21st final in 30 years of existence and it was a very good game in a very good stadium, I hope for more of that in the future. We have a rarity in Rugby League on our hands, we have the only knockout competition on our hands and games like today, games like Leeds beating Salford by 1, Catalans winning the trophy and taking it away from the traditional clubs, Hull beating Leeds by 1, Hull winning consecutive finals by 2 and 4 and this final seeing the sixth consecutive different winner and ten of eleven elite clubs playing in a final in the past nine finals are great things about Rugby League and for all the moaning (plenty of it justified) that happens on here by all of us, we do have something great on our hands and we need to embrace it. 

[EagleEyePie]

I thought it was an entertaining final that Huddersfield were very unlucky to lose. There's no doubt they looked the stronger side for most of that game and it must be frustrating that Lolohoea didn't have his kicking boots on. That said, I don't think it's as simple as 'kick the goals and they win' as Wigan have shown countless times already this year that we're very good at doing just enough to win over the 80 minutes. Had those goal kicks gone over I think Wigan would still have found a way to be within striking distance by the end of the game.

Morgan Smithies is a very lucky boy. Under the early season directives the first challenge was a sin bin and the second a red card. Personally I thought the 2nd one probably still should have been a red, but it's a case of be careful what you wish for for coaches and players in the game. They were up in arms about the number of cards being given and how it was spoiling games, even after incidents that were hard to argue with. The result is challenges like Bentley's last week and Smithies this week not getting the punishments they deserve during the games. However, aside from those moments I thought he had an outstanding game. His work rate was fantastic and the offload for Smith's try was superb. I think he's flown under the radar a bit this year. A lot of people seem to view him as a player who had promise but never kicked on. However, last season he played well but was just a little inconsistent (as nearly all young players tend to be). This season his performances have been strong and consistent.

2 hours ago, Dunbar said:

This could be a breakout performance for Smith.  He took the line on more than he has and I remain convinced his tactical kicking game will be the best of any British player over the next 5 years or so.

I disagree with this comment in the sense that players don't really have 'breakout performances' except for at the very start of their career when they first get noticed. Smith has been a promising player for a while and what makes promising young players become good players is consistency, rather than one game in particular. Smith was probably Wigan's best player today but he was also our best player in the semi against Saints. In fact for all the obvious talk of Jai Field pre-match Wigan's best player since Leuluai's injury has been Harry Smith and I think he's won most of the clubs man of the match awards in that time. That's the most promising thing for Wigan fans. He was always capable of putting in an outstanding performance against weaker sides. He could put in some 7 out of 10 performances in big games. Right now though he's performing well enough to be a key player for us game after game. There's still a lot of flaws to work on but he really seems to be establishing himself in the side.

[StandOffHalf]

9 hours ago, Dunbar said:

After seeing the last 20 live, I have gone back to the first 60.

This could be a breakout performance for Smith.  He took the line on more than he has and I remain convinced his tactical kicking game will be the best of any British player over the next 5 years or so.

Do you think he's a bolter for the World Cup potentially?

I thought he was really good for Wigan yesterday, leaving his mark and guiding them in a big game.

Have to say I agree with the poster who mentioned Smithies as well. Didn't like the dirty stuff, but thought his offload in the tackle was great and I felt he showed a physical presence and leadership in his involvements.

[THE RED ROOSTER]

Wigan stole a march pre-game because theres was the only merchandise on sale in the Tottenham Club shop.

The game itself was proof of the adage that what makes for a good rugby league game is two evenly matched sides. Not the most  technically proficient of games with both sides getting good field position and then engaging in poor decision making. Bevan French had a good game and it helped the wiganers that al least one of the gun players in a young side was firing.

I understood the Huddersfield tactics in the last ten minutes of playing out their six tackles and making Wigan come from deep because if you had watched the game up to that point, Wigan were lacking a bit of spark and invention but whenever you have a game that is within one score going into the final ten minutes then you are at risk of your opponents doing something inspirational, which is what occurred with Harry Smith putting a grubber kick behind the Huddersfield line for Liam Marshall.

I was sitting amongst downcast Yorkies in the middle tier. The posh seats, first time I have been there and it must a be a culture shock for Spurs staff dealing with ordinary folk as opposed tio the prawn sandwich brigade

The Important bit for certain people, with the naked eye and having been to Tottenham for the NFL games and Saracens,  I would say 51,000 was an accurate reflection of the crowd at the second game. with more Rugby League fans of other clubs in attendance (Dividing down Yorkshire / Lancashire lines when it came to who to barrack for). Which is better than in recent seasons. The Challenge Cup final is after all a celebration of the game, whether this is down to the novelty of Tottenham or part of a trend will be seen next year at Wembley.

Matt Peet for coach of the year?. A definate contender, when appointed I like most was thinking Matt who ?. Since then he has guided a young Wigan side to Challenge Cup victory and will have them there or thereabouts in the playoffs. He also had the cojones to dispense with a talented problem child who if left unchecked would have spread his discontent far and wide affecting the club culture. IFL has proved he is one businessman who can make the right appointment as a club chairman.