WHEN the players of Deanery and St Peter’s step out at Wembley on Saturday, they will be playing for a trophy named after a boy who famously graced the stadium in 1986.
Steven Mullaney scored a scorcher of a solo try for the Wakefield Schools team he captained to victory over St Helens Schools that fine afternoon.
It was a match made all the more memorable for Steven’s joyful celebrations, footage of which regularly receives a host of viewings online.
Very sadly, the youngster died the following year in a motor accident outside his school.
Members of his family will, as they have for many years, be present at Wembley to present the trophy, together with medals, to both sets of players and to the match officials (who, piquantly, will include Jack Twigg, a son of Steven’s sister Lauren).
The Steven Mullaney Boys Year 7 Memorial Match at Wembley is, without doubt, one of Rugby League’s great occasions and that will especially be the case this time, on the 40th anniversary of that memorable game.
I really do recommend that as many fans as possible get into the ground for the match, or at least for as much as they can see of it (I understand that the gates don’t open until 11.00am, while the game will kick off at 10.00am).
There’s extra lustre to this year’s match as St Peter’s and Deanery are both Wigan schools while Wigan Warriors are of course in the Women’s Betfred Challenge Cup final, against St Helens, and the Warriors are also in the men’s decider, against Hull KR.
However those last two games pan out, it’s certain that a Wigan team will prevail in the day’s opener, a match that will be as poignant as any, given the importance of the anniversary.
There aren’t many other amateur matches taking place at the weekend – for a long time, there wouldn’t have been any – which was one of the first thoughts that occurred to me when I stumbled, on the RFL’s website, on the news that East Leeds and Moldgreen have had their open age, youth and junior fixtures suspended until the weekend of June 6/7 following incidents in, respectively, their National League Division One and National Conference Yorkshire A fixtures nine days ago.
It could have been worse for both clubs as what it amounts to, to my mind, is the cancellation of games when there was little, if any, action anyway because of the Bank Holiday weekend just gone, and the Wembley weekend.
Moldgreen were due to play Emley in the Huddersfield ARL’s Holliday Cup semi-final. I think (although it’s not been confirmed) that match has been postponed.
Meanwhile ambitious Bristol All Golds have laid down a marker on their intentions to operate at as high a level as possible.
Okay, the All Golds are currently at the foot of National Conference South, but director Lionel Hurst, who is aware that not all teams in his league particularly want to take part in the end-of-season play-offs (for which the potential prize is a place in the National League Division One), believes that sides below any who choose to back out could step forward in their place.
2026 might not be the year for that (not for Bristol, that is) but who knows what the future might hold? As I said to Lionel, it seems like fair comment to me. If clubs, for whatever reasons, don’t want to participate in play-offs, why shouldn’t someone else offer to fill the breach?
It was good, incidentally, to see the All Golds enter the BARLA National Cup and they certainly gave Hull-based hosts Skirlaugh a game on Saturday before losing 36-10.
At least Bristol showed up. Of the fifteen scheduled first-round ties, only six were played, and it was a similar story recently in the preliminary round.
It’s far from satisfactory, although BARLA chair Sue Taylor, who travelled to Essex outfit Brentwood with her husband John for the Eels’ game against Stainland Stags (and saw the men from the south prevail) before conducting the draw for the second round, was quick to praise the teams who did take part.
In confirming BARLA’s various National Cup finals will be staged at Castleford Tigers’ OneBore Stadium (the open-age game will be played on Saturday, October 31, while the Under 18, Under 16 and Under 14 deciders are set for Sunday, September 6), she said: “A big well done to all the clubs who played and travelled fair distances.”
Those include Stainland and the All Golds, of course, together with Woolston – who trekked from Warrington to Cumbria, where they beat Distington – and Crosfields, another Warrington outfit, who prevailed at Fryston, of Castleford.
And Hunslet ARLFC, who are pressing for the inaugural National League Premier Division title, made the long trip from Leeds to Barrow where the Island, of the National Conference Cumbria, pulled off a stunning victory for which they deserve huge congratulations.
The number of ‘walkovers’ has thrown the inaugural 1973 Cup into some confusion, though.
The competition (the first I heard of it was last Friday) is named after the year that BARLA was formed, in an echo of the launch of the 1895 Cup.
The aim is that teams who have lost (after actually taking the field) in the National Cup will take part.
My understanding is that the draw is scheduled for Wednesday, June 3. Organisers might have a bit of thinking to do before then, however.