Great Britain legend Martin Offiah takes the hotseat this month and answers your questions.
Lani: Were you able to stick to your word and stay neutral at Wembley, and what were your general thoughts on the final?
I didn’t think Warrington had a fantastic performance. Warrington will learn a lot from it because they didn’t have many players who had played in a final before. I think they’ll come back stronger from it. I felt for Matty Ashton when he dropped that high bomb – sometimes it’s just not your day.
It was very hard to stay neutral. I had to remind myself at times, because I was so invested in that game. Being the 30th anniversary of when I scored that try at Wembley, the fact I remember watching Wigan play when I was at school, watching Shaun Edwards in the ’85 Cup final against Hull. Playing for Wigan myself. Being immortalised in the statue outside. And Wigan being in the final, I wanted Wigan to win, but I was very conscious not to celebrate tries!
Shortie: How does this Wigan team compare to some of the great Wigan teams of the past, and how good can they go on to be?
It’s very hard for Wigan in the summer era, because of the success that Wigan had pre-Super League. I think some previous Wigan sides have been a bit intimidated by that success and they’ve found it hard. Bradford, Leeds and St Helens have all had times of dominance. Wigan have had success in the Super League era but they haven’t had a period of consistent dominance, like St Helens winning four Grand Finals back-to-back. I think that Michael Maguire was the start of it in 2010, when he came on board and then Shaun Wane took over. Now Matty Peet has taken it to a whole new level. Now I would say Matty has got to the top of the mountain and he has to stay there with evolving Wigan sides. He’s positioned them to have that success with the backing of Kris Radlinski and Mike Danson. The world is their oyster. They could potentially go on to be the greatest Wigan team of all time. It’s still there to be done, don’t get me wrong, and even if you’re favourites you’ve still got to do it. Getting to the mountain top is not the same as staying at the mountain top for a period of time. That’s true greatness.
EJF: Can anyone stop St Helens’ domination in the Women’s Challenge Cup?
I was joking with Jodie (Cunningham) when she came off the pitch, saying ‘you’ve only got four more to equal Wigan now’! They’re having their own period of dominance – but they’re only halfway there. Teams evolve and it’s very hard to keep one team together. You lose players, there are going to be injuries, you’re going to have years where you’re not favoured to win. There’s a lot to do.
wilsontown: Where did you get that suit?
I got it from a shop called AllSaints. I was going to go to a shop called Hackett, I’ve got a friend who used to work there but I went across the road on Bond Street, saw this suit in AllSaints and thought ‘that’s the suit for me’. I always say listen to your gut. Everyone who saw it said ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea to wear that suit’, but I said ‘you know what, my gut is telling me to wear it’. I thought it’s going to be a good omen for Wigan – it’s not red and white but it’s got that little hint of cherry in it.
sam4731: Given recent events, what tribute would you give to Rob Burrow and what legacy did he leave on the sport?
What Rob Burrow – and Kevin Sinfield – have done has taught us all. What this is really about is other people. It’s what we do for the fans. I talk about winning trophies but it’s about what you do for the fans, what you do for other people, what you do for your friends. That’s what Rob and Kevin have shown us and shown the world. They’ve shown what the most important things are in life. You get caught up in success and wanting to achieve things, money and holidays and trophies and a legacy. But at the end of the day, Rob’s no longer with us but we remember how he made us feel. That’s all you can ask, to come onto this planet and affect people for the good. That’s what Rob did.
Brian Leaf: I’ve been to nearly every final since 1968, and seen most of the greatest RL players in the flesh. Do you think the RFL and Super League should keep more of our icons at the forefront of rugby league when they hang up their boots?
Ellery Hanley is at the head of the Man of Steel judging panel. This was my second time as guest of honour at a Challenge Cup final. I think rugby league has got a lot to be positive about, the opportunities it’s given to rugby union players like myself, Billy Boston, Lewis Jones, Jonathan Davies. Many have contributed to the sport of rugby as a whole, like what Shaun Edwards has done, Andy Farrell, Chris Ashton, Jason Robinson. The sport has given a lot to the nation and to the sport of rugby. Rugby league has a lot to shout about. I’d rather shout about the good things that we’re doing, rather than always focusing on things we aren’t doing well. Yes we’d love more column inches in the press. I think we need to produce bigger stars that the nation is interested to see. There are stars – Kevin Sinfield, Rob I think will become a national icon now. We could do more, but I think the sport of rugby league needs to build up genuine superstars, and not let stars move to rugby union or the NRL.
wakeyranger: What do you feel the sport needs to do to raise its profile?
We’ve seen what Jai Field and Bevan French are doing, not only on the pitch but for the town of Wigan, they’re absolute superstars. We need to make them superstars nationally. I was part of the Wigan team in 1994 that won the BBC Sports Personality Team of the Year award. Short of England winning the Euros, I think this current Wigan team should be favourites to win the Team of the Year award again. We know Wigan are the greatest rugby league team the world has ever seen – now it’s about getting that message out. Not preaching to the choir, but getting it out. We need genuine superstars who are earning millions of pounds. I said it years ago and people thought I was saying it just because I was an agent, but I said if the players on the pitch are earning a lot more than the people in the stands, you become an aspirational sport. How do we do it? I know a lot of the clubs will say ‘we can’t spend what we can’t afford’. But if clubs can, let them do it. I’d rather have an uneven competition with genuine superstars than an even competition which is dumbed down and players are only earning £100,000 a year. They could earn £1.5 million in the NRL or rugby union.
17 stone giant: Favourite try and favourite match played in.
It would be hard for me to choose any other try than the one at Wembley. A lot of Widnes fans would say my one for them against Wigan in the 1989 title decider at Naughton Park was my greatest try. There are quite a few good tries on my highlights reel. But let’s face it, I’ll always be remembered for that try at Wembley in 1995. It’s like I wasn’t really in favour of the nickname ‘Chariots’ at first, but now it’s part of who I am, but sometimes it’s the public and the sports publishers that determine what you’ll be remembered for.
As for my favourite match, if I had to pick one for purely personal reasons it would be the one against Leeds in 1992 when I scored 10 tries in the Premiership semi-final. But if we’re looking at it as a team, I would have to say the 1988 third test against Australia in Sydney, or the second test in 1992 in Melbourne – because beating Australia in Australia is the highest. You can win World Club Challenges, Grand Finals or anything else you want to in rugby league, but if you beat the Australian national side in Australia, that’s the holy grail. Not many people can say they’ve done that.
DavidM: Which was more memorable, the third test of ’88 or the Melbourne test of ’92 ?
They’re both up there, but I still didn’t win a Test Series against Australia. We almost did it at Old Trafford in 1990 when Ricky Stuart made a break down our left hand side. I was off the field at the time with a medial ligament injury watching on the TV screen in changing room. I keep thinking if I was on the field at that point we’d have won the Ashes – I’ll take that disappointment to the grave.
Damien: Who was the best winger you played against?
Andrew Ettingshausen was probably the person I had the most duels with in that ’92 Series, so he’d be one and Kevin Iro would be another, so would John Bentley and Alan Hunte – although I think he had problems with me more than I had problems with him. But I didn’t really focus on my opposition, I just focussed on myself and what I had to do.
arcticchris: Of the last 10 years which centre in the world of rugby league would you have most enjoyed playing outside of.
I have always been a fan of Kallum Watkins. He was a player that there was a lot of hype around, some might say he didn’t live up to that potential, but he was a big rangy centre, a bit like Gene Miles. Kai Pearce-Paul is similar and I always played well outside big centres like Darren Wright and Gene, who had good hands, could offload and probably didn’t want to run that much.
Gerrumonside ref: You were unquestionably the most exciting player of your generation to watch for me – with that in mind, which current Super League players do you equally find exciting?
I have always been a big Tommy Makinson fan, and always been a fan of Josh Charnley too – I like to see wingers scoring tries. I see a lot of Wigan games and I somethimes think that Liam Marshall is someone that hasn’t ever got that much attention, but some of the tries he’s scored have been phenomenal. He does it in big games too, he’s come through in Challenge Cup Finals, Grand Finals and got the winner when Wigan won the Challenge Cup at Tottenham in 2022. I love watching all the exciting wingers in action.
moorside roughyed: Who’s your favourite rugby league player ever?
That’s a tough one. I always remember when I first joined Widnes I asked someone who the best player in the world was. I was told it was a guy from Australia called Wally. To me the term Wally was not a favourable term for someone, it was an insult to call somebody that. But from then on I became a big fan of Wally Lewis.
Wigan Riversider: Victory against Brisbane in June 1994, any anecdotes?
Not really from that game, but two years earlier on the Great Britain tour of 1992 I had a 100 metre race against Parramatta winger Lee Oudenryn and he beat me. But then years later, on a podcast, he revealed to the world that he’d cheated in that race. I’d won a few races in my time and people used to always go on about my speed, but I lost that one, live on Channel Nine. It still rankles with me how he beat me, but the person who started the race was his trainer, so they’d conspired to count down and he knew to go on the ‘B’ of the bang. But I did then go on to score two tries against him in the game.
Bondi Cannon: Is it true you let Lee Oudenryn win your sprint race in 1992 because some of your teammates had punted on him winning?
No that’s a bit of a fallacy – he did cheat. They’re his words.
Taurus: What were your thoughts about rugby league when you first signed from Rosslyn Park RU?
I didn’t really have too much of a clue what to expect, it was just a good opportunity for me. I’d seen rugby league on TV growing up, seeing the Challenge Cup Final and watching the game on Grandstand on a Saturday afternoon. For me the thought of playing in a Challenge Cup Final at Wembley was always the goal. I’d had four successful years at Widnes, as their top try scorer every year and winning World Club titles and Championships, but still I hadn’t won a Challenge Cup. I feel like it was always me destiny to do that, so to do it, then go on to present the trophy, be part of the statue outside Wembley, I still have to pinch myself at times.
DavidM: There are fast players in our sport but a few like you are on another level. Is it just natural or extra hard work?
I think in all walks of life you find out what you’re good at and then work at it. So I did spend time on it, I did a lot of sprint training. Speed is only a tool, and we sometimes get obsessed with how fast someone is, but I always say it’s not about how fast you are, it’s about how many tries you score. I was trying to compete with the likes of Billy Boston and Brian Bevan that came before me, I wasn’t asking if I was as fast as them, it only mattered if I was able to score more tries than them.
JDINTHEHIZZOUSE: Was there any particular game you played where as you felt the opposition’s game plan was to “shut you down”?
Just about every game I played! One sticks in my head though, it was a Good Friday game against St Helens and for the whole game the whole of the Saints team, including Sonny Nickle and Alan Hunte, was just trying to smash me and take me out of the game. I always knew I was going to be in trouble whenever I went to Knowsley Road – there was even one game there I broke a bone in my back and was stretchered off.
Vicky Hitchen: How would you feel about having to field the high balls that occur so much in the present game and do you remember any relevant tackles that you ever made?
As a player you adapt to anything. There were still quite a lot of high balls in my day, but a lot of the time people didn’t want to kick to me, because if they got it wrong and I had a bit of space and I beat one man, it was hard for them to readjust and tackle me. But I’d back myself in any situation.
When I won the Lance Todd trophy in 1992 I went back to clear the ball from St John Ellis, but that was probably more a defensive effort rather than a tackle. I was more known for my try scoring than my tackling, but I think one time I got into double figures for my tackle count was the 1994 Test against Australia at Wembley when Shaun Edwards got sent off early on but we still went on to win. I did a lot of tackling that day.
DoubleD: Given your son has decided to take a path down the dark side, where do you feel you went wrong as a parent?
I don’t, you have to let your kids live their own lives. One is a footballer, one plays rugby union. I didn’t make their decisions and I didn’t do what my parents did – they were a teacher and a barrister. Each individual is on this planet for their own happiness and glory, no one else’s. If rugby union was still amateur and league professional as it was in my day, he’d probably be playing league along with the sons of many of the greats. It is what it is.
Beaker: If you could take part in any reality show (that you haven’t done already) which one would it be and why?
I’m not really an ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here’ fan because I don’t like heights or eating horrible things, so it would have to be Big Brother. I’d love to do that and be in the house with anyone interesting. That show is about getting to know the real person and not what they have done before they went in the house. Maybe one of the big American sports stars, someone like Tom Brady (American football) would be good to get to know.
Josef K: How do you spend your free time?
I do a lot, I just like enjoying myself. I love DJing and watching reality TV shows – I’m watching Love Island at the moment. I just do what people do to find happiness, friends, music, TV, going on holiday. I also like working out, going to the gym, playing paddle tennis, doing jujitsu, even though I’ve injured myself doing it. Spending time with my kids and helping them be the best they can be.
Josef K: What subjects, current events, or causes are you passionate about?
I’m passionate about supporting Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and do a lot of work for Joining Jack and Duchenne UK. I just like to help anyone that I can. If someone asks me anything and I can give them a bit of advice or help them in any way I will do. I just try to be a positive influence and have done a lot of work about perspective and mindset. I’m also passionate about the sustainability of the planet, and part of my role as an ambassador with Wigan is as brand and sustainability ambassador.
Eddie: Which was the greater highlight – winning the World Club Championship with Widnes or appearing on Emmerdale?
Ha ha! Well one doesn’t come without the other. Even though I think I’m a pretty good actor, I would never have got that opportunity if I hadn’t have done the things that I’d done in the game. The other week I was a question on The Chase. When you’re able to transcend sport, that only comes from doing great things in sport and that is why I owe so much to rugby league and the opportunities it has given me.
@emma_tr4_rhinos: If you could attend any sporting event in the world which would you choose and why?
I’ve been to Vegas a couple of times and seen a Mayweather fight, but I’d like to go back there and see a top UFC fight. I have done a lot of things on my bucket list – I’ve seen Michael Jordan play, been to FA Cup Finals, Grand Finals, World Cup Finals – but I’m a big fan of American sports, so going to see a UFC fight in Vegas is one I’ve still to do.
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 498 (July 2024)
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