Hull KR left it to the last minute to clinch victory in a dramatic, low scoring Challenge Cup final at Wembley, but those around the club see it as just the beginning of a quest for more silverware in future, whilst Warrington Wolves must lick their wounds and prepare to bounce back.
THERE is something about Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and games at Wembley Stadium which go down to the dying minutes.
The prop, then aged 24, was playing for New Zealand the day the Kiwis broke England’s hearts by snatching a 20-18 victory in the last knockings of the 2013 Rugby League World Cup semi-final.
Twelve years later and in the final season of his career, the 36-year-old found himself back at the national stadium in Hull KR colours – and again in a match which came down to a nail-biting conclusion.
The difference is, this time Waerea-Hargreaves was coming away with a trophy and a winners’ medal after helping the Robins claim their first major honour for 40 years in the Betfred Challenge Cup Final.
“That was the last time I was here, wasn’t it?” Waerea-Hargreaves said, reflecting on the then and the now.
“This is cool – cool to do it with some good mates and memories that I’ll cherish forever now.
“It came down to the wire and it was super tight, but as we’ve always said, we showed grit and character, and it just shows it isn’t over until the end.
“It’s a hell of a feeling, mate – a hell of a feeling – and that’s why you play the game.”
Back in 2013, it was Shaun Johnson who was the hero for New Zealand and the heartbreaker for England, with the try and conversion which sent the then-reigning champions back into the final.
In 2025, it was Tom Davies and Mikey Lewis – the former diving on Tyrone May’s grubber kick for a try eventually confirmed by the video referee and the latter slotting the two-pointer to seal an 8-6 win over Warrington Wolves.
The tension as Lewis stepped up to slot his cup-clinching conversion proved too much for some, not least of all those Hull KR fans still with the 2023 golden-point defeat at Wembley to Leigh Leopards at the forefront of their minds.
It was affecting those on the field too, particularly Hull KR full-back Jack Broadbent, who was unable to watch the current Man of Steel take his make-or-break kick at goal and was turned with his back to it hoping for some sort of divine intervention.
“I was just looking up at somebody, something – get behind him and just make him kick it,” Broadbent said.
“I couldn’t watch, but then I heard the roar of the fans.
“It probably hadn’t gone over [yet] and I was going mental.
“He’s pulled up at the right time and slotted it.”
The Challenge Cup final victory marked a double celebration for Broadbent, thrust into the fulback role for the final due to Arthur Mourgue being cup-tied, after earlier in the week finding out he was set to earn a first-class honours for the sports marketing degree he had been studying for in his spare time.
For Hull KR as a whole, though, it not only meant a first big-time trophy since winning the old Slalom Lager Championship back in 1985, but also the Challenge Cup being back in East Hull for the first time since their sole previous triumph in rugby league’s most prestigious knock-out competition 45 years ago.
For the likes of Brian Lockwood, Roger Millward and Steve Hubbard, who all proved so pivotal in that 10-5 victory over cross-city rivals Hull FC in 1980, see Waerea-Hargreaves, Lewis and Davies for their modern-day equivalents.
While they were writing their names in the history books for the Robins, Marc Sneyd was doing the same for Warrington Wolves, albeit in a somewhat bittersweet manner.
The 34-year-old was a mid-season recruit from financially-stricken Salford Red Devils and put on an in-play kicking masterclass at Wembley in changeable weather conditions, pinning Hull KR in their own half for significant parts of the match.
It was a display which earned him the Lance Todd Trophy for player of the match, equalling St Helens icon Sean Long in becoming only the second player in the history of the award to win it three times.
Yet Sneyd, who also took the accolade in Hull FC’s back-to-back Challenge Cup successes of 2016 and 2017, took little consolation or pride in his achievement after an agonising defeat for the Wolves.
“I’d rather have not won it, if I’m being honest,” Sneyd said, after becoming the 13th player to earn the Lance Todd Trophy despite finishing on the losing team and the third in the past five years.
“It’s quite a broad statement and not many people win it three times.
“When I’m retired I’ll probably look back and be proud of myself, but for the time being I’m not happy about it.”
There could hardly be much more of a marked contrast between the playing styles of halves Long and Sneyd, one the maverick playmaker capable of turning a game with a piece of individual magic and the other the more assured composed presence who lays the platform for everyone else around him to build on.
That goes a long way to explaining why he and George Williams, back in the Warrington team for the final after making a rapid return from an ankle injury, have struck up such an effective partnership since Sneyd joined the club in March.
England captain Williams was convinced the Wolves would have emerged victorious if his fellow half was named player of the match, although he took some solace from the display as they turn their sights back to Super League.
“I have thought if he’d have won the Lance Todd we’d have won, but we didn’t,” Williams said.
“He was brilliant. I think that was perfect weather for Marc to show how good he is and he did exactly that.
“The one positive is, once we reflect a little bit, we’ll realise we have got a good team here.
“We do want to push for the finals and Hull KR know we’re a good team now, too.”
Sneyd empathised with the younger members of the team like 19-year-old winger Arron Lindop too, who was left crestfallen after failing in his attempt to touch down May’s kick in goal, with Davies following up to finish.
No one was pinning the blame on Lindop though and Sneyd, who was on the losing team as a 23-year-old with Castleford Tigers in the 2014 Challenge Cup Final, believes this experience will only make the Wolves’ young guns stronger.
“I know what it’s like to lose things when you’re fairly young,” Sneyd said. “It stings like mad and it stung me.
“They’ll learn from it. It’s a tough one, but they’ll get a lot out of that and the team will grow from it.”
Neither team could afford to dwell too much on the outcome of the final, with the second half of the Super League regular season kicking into gear the following week.
Both teams have their sights on a maiden Grand Final triumph, albeit with Hull KR firmly ensconced at the top of the table and Warrington scrabbling to make it into the top six after a mixed first half of the 2025 campaign.
After near misses at Wembley in 2023 and Old Trafford in 2024, when Hull KR were beaten 9-2 by the all-conquering Wigan Warriors team, the Challenge Cup triumph marked a significant milestone for Willie Peters’ team.
The great football manager Brian Clough reckoned the most important trophy his Nottingham Forest team ever won was the little-heralded Anglo-Scottish Cup because it taught his players, many of whom would go on to form part of the back-to-back European Cup-winning teams, they had what it took to win silverware.
If that is the case, then Peters’ men doing so on one of rugby league’s grandest stages and in one of its most historic, prestigious competitions could hardly have stood them in much better stead as they push to secure the League Leaders’ Shield and go one better in this year’s Super League Grand Final.
On a personal level, victory in Manchester in October would be the perfect way for Waerea-Hargreaves to sign off his storied 16-year playing career, having already been part of three NRL Grand Final-winning teams during his time with Sydney Roosters.
Adding a Super League Grand Final winners’ ring to those and his Challenge Cup winners’ medal would complete the set of domestic honours on both sides of the world for the veteran forward, and he is not surprised to see the Robins starting to live up to the potential they had shown in the previous two seasons.
“It puts a sweetener on why you come here,” Waerea-Hargreaves said.
“I noticed from day one when I got here in November last year how eager and motivated these guys are, and it’s shown all year.
“[Michael McIlorum] and myself spoke on the field straight after, it’s about believing in what we have and continuing on that journey we’re on and believing.
“It’s the start, and hopefully there are many more to come.”
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 510 (July 2025)