World Club Challenge to be cancelled as Super League Grand Final aims for seven-year high

SUPER LEAGUE officials are confident of attracting the largest Grand Final crowd since at least the 2017 season when Wigan face Hull KR at Old Trafford this Saturday.

With the Robins making their first ever appearance in the Grand Final, their fans immediately snapped up their initial allocation of 10,000 tickets and they have now been allocated more tickets in additional areas of the ground to satisfy their demand.

Last year’s decider between Wigan and Catalans attracted a crowd of 58,137, but the last time the attendance exceeded 70,000 was in 2017, when 72,827 turned out to see Leeds Rhinos defeat Castleford Tigers 24-6.

Wigan supporters are likely to be outnumbered on Saturday but they will go into the game as strong favourites after hammering their neighbours Leigh Leopards 38-0 on Saturday at The Brick Community Stadium.

Victory on Saturday would mean they had won all four trophies available to them this season – World Club Challenge, Challenge Cup, League Leaders’ Shield and Super League title – but their coach Matty Peet is anticipating another strong performance.

“It’s going to be a pleasure to be involved off the back of what has been a flagship weekend for Super League which is credit to hard work at a lot of clubs,” said Peet.

“Next week can be a real celebration of not just Wigan and Hull KR, but the competition.”

Meanwhile York Valkyrie won the Women’s Super League Grand Final on Sunday, defeating their hosts St Helens 18-8 to retain their title in front of 4,830, while in Australia Penrith Panthers defeated Melbourne Storm 14-6 at Accor Stadium in Sydney, while Sydney Roosters won the NRLW Grand Final, defeating Cronulla 32-28.

The World Club Challenge, however, is set to be cancelled as Penrith struggle with a tight schedule following a sojourn to LAs Vegas for the NRL double-header at the start of next year.

“You couldn’t put the players through it. We can’t play it, we don’t have the time span,” Panthers chairman Brian Fletcher told News Corp.

“It’s impractical. There’s no way in the world we could fit it into the schedule. Our coaches and football department have said the players couldn’t stand up to it.

“The amount of football that they’ve played and then a World Club Challenge before we go to Vegas – it becomes too much. Player welfare is the biggest problem. We have 20-odd players in the Pacific Test matches as well, and we have a lot of surgery to be done on players over the off-season.”

Click here to get the digital edition of League Express

Click here to subscribe to the print edition of League Express

League Express is also widely available from local newsagents across the north of England.

Click here to listen to the League Express Podcast