Key events
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Here’s Aaron Bower’s full match report
Trophy presentation is go
It’s trophy time. Each Wigan player is announced as they head to stage in turn before captain Liam Farrell joins them.
He’s handed the big one, moves among his team on the stage and with a huge cheer he thrusts the silverware aloft under a hail of fizzy booze, tickertape and fireworks.
It’s time for Bevan French to receive the inaugural Rob Burrow award, to he handed over by Geoff, Rob’s dad. A bittersweet moment.
Willie Peters is considering the loss.
“We gave it our all, but credit to Wigan this is why they are World Champions. WE’re on a journey and whatever happened tonight that wasn’t to be the end of it. You can’t give up the inside shoulder to players like Bevan French, but I’ll have a proper look at the game and we’ll learn from it.”
Winning coach Matt Peet is chatting to Sky.
“Very proud. We came up against and almighty team and almighty club – I expect a few more of these to come in next few yeas. A tough game, exactly what we expected, but this team means so much to me and it’s a brilliant achievement.
I’m so proud to coach the team and Bevan. They love him and he loves them. He produces the goods.
I’m very proud of [winning all four trophies]. I do feel this is where we belong as a team and as town and a rugby league club. We’ve got so much more learning and growing to do.”
Man of Match and first recipient of the Rob Burrow award, Bevan French is very emotional in the post match interview.
“It’s a special club, it’s family first, I’m so grateful not just for right now but for everything in the past few years. The club brought my family and my Uncle over for the game.”
A word for Hull KR. It can’t be easy to sit in the shadow of another Lancashire winner of a big event after their late hearbreak vs Leigh in the 2023 Challenge Cup. None of that should take away from what they’ve achieved in the last few years.
Matt Peet’s men are a truly exceptional rugby league team. Count the trophies this year; World Club Challenge, Challenge Cup, League Leaders Shield and now the Grand Final.
They have been the best side all the way through, the perfect mix of coaching a plan and sprinkling it with enough magic to win it all. And their defence is scarcely believable.
WIGAN WIN BACK TO BACK GRAND FINALS!
The hooter sounds and the crowd and Wigan players go wild.
79 mins. Wigan are still winning.
78 mins. Some life in the KR dog yet and they fling the ball about on the Wigan 22. It’s the final tackle and Batcheler is clamped on by Field. He should have let that go to a team mate, but it’s all academic now.
76 mins. Wigan run four around halfway before Smith drills a diagonal kick into touch. This is a slow death for KR.
74 mins. Hull KR knock on.
I’m not making this up, I promise.
72 mins. Wigan are simply running solid sets now and inviting KR to have a go from their own half. The latest possession for the Robins is unbelievably no lost forward, but the Warriors defence disarm another Lewis bomb kick.
70 mins. THe Robins have the ball again and you’ll never guess what just happened? I’m struggling to find a new way to describe a knock-on now.
68 mins. Another lost ball from Hull KR as they look to carry out of their own half puts them back under the cosh. The Yorkshiremen are looking tired and like they are running out of ideas and composure.
67 mins. The Warrriors continue to squeeze the game into the KR half, with a final tackle play moving left at pace to Wardle. However, the Robins manfully cover across again to force him into touch.
NO TRY! Wigan (Jake Wardle)
64 mins. On the fourth tackle just inside the KR half Wigan move it left to Field who is free and running up the touchline. He pops inside to Wardle who looks to have the line at his mercy but Hall, covering across the field from the opposite wing, does enough in the tackle to force the Warriors centre to hit the ground and lose the ball short of the line. The video ref confirms it.
What a tackle from the old man.
62 mins. The Robins need two scores and unfortunately for them this Wigan defence presently looks like they could play until the heat death of the Planet Earth without allowing someone over the line.
PENALTY! Wigan 9 – 2 Hull KR (Adam Keighran)
61 mins. Lewis slips when attempting the drop out making it skid along the ground for the Nsemaba to run it back. ON the next tackle Lewis tip-tackles Farrell to give away a penalty.
Keighran calls for the tee and under a cacophony of noise slots it with 0% fuss.
59 mins. Bevan French wakes up and has a trademark run through the line and bears down on the covering defence. He chips it forward and falls theatrically but the ref is having none of it as Burgess is forced to carry it dead.
57 mins. 23 minutes remain, one score in it, the hailstones are back. Drama incoming?
PENALTY! Wigan 7 – 2 Hull KR (Mikey Lewis)
56 mins. In the midst of that final play there was obstruction on Minchella. It’s just left of the post and looks a gimme for Lewis. Under a chorus of boos and howls from the Wigan end he pulls it horribly but it still just about goes over.
55 mins. An increase in pace from Hull KR on the fourth tackle in the Wigan half has them moving into the 20 metre. On the last they go for the powerplay, working through hands to the left corner but the Wigan defence is organised and impenetrable AGAIN!
54 mins. It’s no longer hailstoning in Old Trafford…
53 mins. Hull KR have some territory for the first time in a while as they attack in the Wigan half. It looks even better when the ref resets the tackle count for a Warrriors infringement, but on the very next tackle Sue spills the ball. GAH!
52 mins. It’s hailstoning at Old Trafford…
50 mins. The ball is kicked into the KR in-goal. Mikey Lewis gathers and under the not inconsiderable attention of Nsemba he wriggles clear to run it out. That was fantastic work and I bet he’s fuming two tackles later when Whitbread chucks a stupid offload to lose possession on the forty metre.
48 mins. The big prop Mago is on for Wigan, and this is worth remark as it’s their first official interchange of the game (excluding Nsemba’s head assessment). It feels like they are about to tighten the vice.
46 mins. KR work the ball left at pace to Ryan Hall a few metres from the line, but he’s repelled by this unbelievable Wigan defence. They’ve not conceded a point for three and a half games now and that’s no accident.
44 mins. The ball pinballs in the Wigan 20 and when it settles it falls to Wardle who feeds Marshall with nothing but open pasture between him and line, but he drops it! That was the game right there, instead Hull KR are back on the attack.
That’s woken the crowd up, let me tell you”!
42 mins. Set each from either side forms the same pattern as the first half. Settling of both the game and blood pressure, with very little to convince that either side fancy taking much of a chance.
SECOND HALF!
It’s Wigan’s turn to receive the ball, and we’re back underway.
An email from Sue Lawrence.
“Finals are notoriously bad games! Still hoping for a Wigan win.”
They can be Sue, certainly. The good thing is that low scores can lead to late drama, as Welsby at the death for Saints in 2020 demonstrated.
HALF TIME!
The hooter squeals to brings the fist half to a close.
