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

[Nate90]

What an exciting and tense game of Rugby League. 

I'm so happy Wigan won a record extending 20th Challenge Cup Final but fair play to Huddersfield too who played out of their skin. 

The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium absolutely exceeded my expectations, because of the layout we felt close to the action and this helped the atmosphere something lacking at Wembley, I hope more Rugby League games take place at Tottenham. 

[bromleybulldog]

Despite earlier comments where posters were claiming there would be few neutrals there, I thought there were actually a lot. Saw plenty of Hull FC and Rhinos shirts and despite the thoughts that Championship fans no longer attended, fans from Bulls, Bulldogs and even London Broncos! Thought the Wigan fans turned out in good number and Huddersfield certainly had more fans there than their average home attendance would suggest. Thought the atmosphere inside the stadium was excellent and the stadium itself the best I've ever been to. Much preferred it to Wembley.

[JohnM]

13 hours ago, Fevrover said:

About as much as he showed certain teams.

Ignorance is bliss, eh? You've nothing meaningful to say about the game.

 

[WN83]

14 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.

He’s just settling down now. There’s still a silly error in him, as shown with his fumbles from dummy half in both the semi and the final but rid them and he’s shown now what he’s got. The best players play well in the big games. Going back through the last few decades, when big games came around guys like Andy Greg, Sean Long and Danny Maguire saved their best for the finals and he did that yesterday. He’s been under pressure, so I’m chuffed for him. 

[WN83]

23 minutes ago, bromleybulldog said:

Despite earlier comments where posters were claiming there would be few neutrals there, I thought there were actually a lot. Saw plenty of Hull FC and Rhinos shirts and despite the thoughts that Championship fans no longer attended, fans from Bulls, Bulldogs and even London Broncos! Thought the Wigan fans turned out in good number and Huddersfield certainly had more fans there than their average home attendance would suggest. Thought the atmosphere inside the stadium was excellent and the stadium itself the best I've ever been to. Much preferred it to Wembley.

Both Hull teams were very well represented I thought. I saw a handful of Saints and Leeds fans maybe but not many. I genuinely don’t think I saw a Warrington fan all day. The neutral attendance seemed pretty good but still needs work imo. 

[Pie tries]

14 hours ago, JohnM said:

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

Spot on

Davy has earned our respect - so too for ML, no mergers too place and he dragged our sport out of the swamp of old decrepit stadiums - any failing are the result of later management not capitalising on his visionary progress

[Pie tries]

15 hours ago, Walney said:

Calmed down a bit now. Am heartbroken for Huddersfield to loose it in the last couple of mins. I so wanted them to win and be a new name on the cup. I imagine Tui Lolohea is punishing himself enough right now, thinking about those kicks.

Huddersfield did their fans proud…

[WN83]

13 hours ago, The Future is League said:

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.

Absolutely.

There was a nice moment after the game on the coach park. Ken Davy was heading back to his coach/car (a nice one I presume) and walked past our coach. In football you know what he’d get when people bang on the windows to get his attention. In Rugby League? He get a round of applause and people giving him thumbs up/waving to him. I felt sorry for the guy, he deserves some success. 

[Pie tries]

Make sure everyone comments on the HYS on the BBC sport rugby league page - we can all do our bit to raise the profile of the game by commenting 

[Chronicler of Chiswick]

As far as the attendance is concerned, I'd question whether it would have been much higher if we'd played at Wembley, somewhere along the line the Cup's lost its magic. Back in the eighties with Fulham we had a Friday night do in a pub with a load of Whitehaven supporters followed by our annual Cup Final evening bash at the now long gone Clarendon in Hammersmith the highlight being after the '85 final with several of the UK based Aussies there. Highlight was the ice cube fight between Harold Henney (older members here would remember him) and Mal Meninga. The bar staff pondered intervening, looked at the size of the protagonists and decided that they had other things to do!

[JohnM]

Not sure the Cup has lost its magic. Maybe. However, in these days of urban to suburban population drift, phenomena such as geographical drift as uni students end up living and working in areas far removed from their origins, increased TV coverage. 't interwebby, etc, more and more get to see the game on their devices rather than in person.

[Jughead]

I don’t think the Challenge Cup has lost any magic on the field, whether it’s a grass patch with a barrier around it or the multi million pound Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the action on the pitch has been entertaining and exciting, as it is every year.

Back to the first round we had teams from Scotland (Edinburgh Eagles), Ireland (Galway Tribesmen) and Wales (Bridgend Blue Bulls) alongside non-heartland teams in London Chargers, Jarrow Vikings and Wests Warriors, service sides like GB Police, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and British Army taking the field against established and famous amateur clubs like Wigan St Patricks, Siddal, Leigh East etc. 

We’ve had The Army beating Orrell St James, an Army v Navy game in round two, an all-London tie, Lock Lane’s giant killing against Oldham, Hunslet Parkside beating a League One team in London Skolars and then pushing former winners Sheffield Eagles all the way, Leigh edging past Bradford in a tight game, St Helens and Huddersfield going to Whitehaven and Barrow, Wakefield knocking out Warrington, a quality quarter final between Catalans and St Helens, the great semi-final derby between Wigan and St Helens and then the final being settled by two points. 

We’re in a golden period for finals. Six different winners in as many years, finals settled by 2, 14, 1, 14, 6, 4 and 2 in the past seven years and ten different finalists in ten finals.

The magic on the field isn’t rewarded with the crowds it deserves on the terraces and that’s a concern and disappointing, as there is a lot of good games, good stories and history made each year but our fans don’t attend in numbers to see it in person. It’s the second biggest gate of the year every year and unique that it’s the only knockout competition of its kind but attitudes do change and priorities change. 

Edited May 29, 2022 by Jughead

[Damien]

1 hour ago, WN83 said:

Absolutely.

There was a nice moment after the game on the coach park. Ken Davy was heading back to his coach/car (a nice one I presume) and walked past our coach. In football you know what he’d get when people bang on the windows to get his attention. In Rugby League? He get a round of applause and people giving him thumbs up/waving to him. I felt sorry for the guy, he deserves some success. 

That's nice to hear. I think it's churlish if people can't put politics aside and not be able to respect Davy for what he has done for Huddersfield and by extension Rugby League.

Even as a Wigan fan I would have been made up to see a new team, in terms of recent history, getting the Cup and think it would have been fitting for McGilvary and Davy. They deserved it on the day too.

[WN83]

9 minutes ago, Damien said:

That's nice to hear. I think it's churlish if people can't put politics aside and not be able to respect Davy for what he has done for Huddersfield and by extension Rugby League.

Even as a Wigan fan I would have been made up to see a new team, in terms of recent history, getting the Cup and think it would have been fitting for McGilvary and Davy. They deserved it on the day too.

You have to leave politics to one side IMO, especially in a sport like ours. We need people with a passion and a drive to help the game involved and if they have a few quid, then all the better. He’s been on a one man crusade to bring some success to Huddersfield and with Watson in charge he may yet get to see that.
 

They should learn a lot from the game. Aside from them needing a quality goal kicker (Russell presumably wasn’t fit enough to take them on), they’ll realise that when your in the ascendancy, you need to seize that and not declare. It felt like they stopped looking to score in that last 15-20 minutes and it cost them. 

[Futtocks]

This poster is already on sale via Etsy. I'm going to buy <insert name of fanatical Wigan-hater> one for Christmas.

[Futtocks]

 

[Niels]

2 hours ago, Pie tries said:

Spot on

Davy has earned our respect - so too for ML, no mergers too place and he dragged our sport out of the swamp of old decrepit stadiums - any failing are the result of later management not capitalising on his visionary progress

I was at the 1995 final Wigan v Leeds and there were many protests and fans who were worried about their teams. I think their views are understandable.

 

[Damien]

One thing I haven't really seen mentioned on here is Leuluai's pass to set up the try. Yes Smith got the plaudits for the kick but that pass was just as important. A great switch of play and a pin point 20+ metre pass. It was sensational and made that try possible.

[Championi]

Gutted gutted gutted that was hard to take. Best stadium I've ever been in. But our coaches had to park down a side street and we had to walk to the ground with our disabled father it nearly killed him. Still great day great stadium great fans from fev,leigh Wigan and all the neutrals. The giants are looking like a genuine team now. Congratulations to Wigan Warriors see you in the grand final

[meast]

First of all congratulations to Wigan and their fans on their 20th CC win, I hope I don't sound bitter when I say I don't think they really deserved it, I'm genuinely not, I just thought we were the better side throughout, most Wigan fans I spoke to seemed to agree.

The difference in points ultimately came down to 4 missed goal kicks, but in the end Wigan did us with a god try and caught us out on one of the few occasions our defence let us down.

Having slept and reflected, I've got a mixture of emotions today.

I'm still absolutely gutted by the result, I wasn't the only one with a tear in my eye when Marshall scored, I saw grown men and women openly sobbing in the stands which hurt,  I'm devastated for Ken, for Jerry, for Leroy and Bruno who probably won't get another chance to win the cup, I'm gutted for Watto who now has 3 final very close final defeats against him and I'm gutted for the genuine Fartown fans who have stuck with us.

I'm not going to really analyse the game too much as most people probably saw it the same, but just want to make comment on the 3 Smithies incidents, any other game than the challenge cup final and he's off the field for at least 10 minutes, I thought it looked like a decision Child didn't want to make, after all, he would have been the first ref to have sin binned a player in a cup final for 21 years, but Smithies had to go, if not for the first one, then at least for the second, 2 months ago he would have likely have had a straight red, the 3rd was down to the fact that he knew he could get away with it,  it didn't have any bearing on the result at all, but he's probably going to get a ban that will possibly benefit someone else, no criticism of Child who I thought had a good game, and could have possibly binned one of ours for the blatant holding down right on half time.

I'm extremely proud of my team and club, we get so much stick from the RL fraternity for anything they can get their hands on, our fans were superb yesterday, I was so proud of many of us stayed right until after the cup had been lifted, that showed class, many other clubs fans would have been straight out of the ground, you probably couldn't blame them after a defeat like that, but our fans showed support to our lads and our club when it was most needed, rather than swanning off and deserting them, most fans I spoke to after were genuinely sympathetic, gracious and positive about Huddersfield, it seems it may just be the keyboard and phone screen warriors that have an issue with us?

 

Once again, congratulations to Wigan and their fans.

[meast]

Now, about my experience of the day and the stadium.

I thought the stadium was superb, the acoustics and the views and the general feel of the stadium was fantastic, far better than Wembley, it had a feel of a proper ground about it rather than a corporate bowl.

I was in the lower tier with the noisy Giants fans and even the upper tiers felt close despite being high up, at Wembley the upper tiers feel so much further away, almost like a separate ground, even in the upper tiers at Wembley, the lower tiers seem so distant too.

Despite the area around the ground being less than salubrious, it felt "homely" with the High road being blocked off and fans up and down the High road, it felt like there was a closeness that you don't get with Wembley's vast expanses of shopping centres, hotels and corporate office blocks.

Travel wise, we had no problems, underground to sevens sisters then a fairly slow bus ride up to Tottenham, after the game we had a drink and made our way back to seven sisters initially by bus then a short walk after the bus was taken out of operation, then back to kings cross for a drink before our train home.

Wembley, despite it massiveness, it's corporateness it's good, but this felt like a really good alternative, I'd be more than happy to go back, although I'd be less inclined to pay £6.75 for a pint though!

[JonM]

3 hours ago, JohnM said:

However, in these days of urban to suburban population drift, phenomena such as geographical drift as uni students end up living and working in areas far removed from their origins, 

I was sat outside Kings Cross for about half an hour waiting for my son to arrive. In that time, I saw at least half a dozen blokes (or couples) in RL jerseys doing something similar i.e. using the Challenge Cup Final as an opportunity to meet up with younger family members who've moved to London after university.

[Ant]

Got say, the noise from the Giants fans in the last 10 was incredible.

[Bearman]

I thought White Hart Lane was superb. Under and overground was a doddle with a walk of only about 150 yards.

I have been in Club Wembley and I thought WHL was better. The staff were very accommodating. I took my Grandson who lives in London and he was very impressed by the stadium, the fans and the game.

The management of departing fans after the game at the overground was very slick.

I went by rail on the Chiltern Line to Marylebone. I should have remembered from previous CC Cups that they are useless.My train was chocker. We called at some stations and left people who were unable to board.

Next time I will drive to Stanmore and use the under and over ground service.

 

, 

 

 

[Padge]

6 hours ago, bromleybulldog said:

Despite earlier comments where posters were claiming there would be few neutrals there, I thought there were actually a lot. Saw plenty of Hull FC and Rhinos shirts and despite the thoughts that Championship fans no longer attended, fans from Bulls, Bulldogs and even London Broncos! Thought the Wigan fans turned out in good number and Huddersfield certainly had more fans there than their average home attendance would suggest. Thought the atmosphere inside the stadium was excellent and the stadium itself the best I've ever been to. Much preferred it to Wembley.

I saw quite a few union shirts as well as plenty neutral RL shirts.