Have Wigan blown chance of Double, Lee Briers edges closer to an Old Trafford final and hats off to Brisbane's Darren Lockyer
1) Will the double ever be done again?
It is probably premature, and dangerous, to write off Wigan's chances of defending their Super League title after a single play-off defeat. As their coach, Michael Maguire, was quick to point out afterwards, they also lost in the first round last season, at home to Leeds, before seizing the second chance they had earned by finishing top of the table to thrash Hull KR, gain revenge on the Rhinos at Headingley, and finally to beat St Helens at Old Trafford.
But last year was different, mainly because Wigan had gone out of the Challenge Cup at the quarter-final stage. This season, they have played three matches more than the favourites Warrington ? and not routine matches either, but the World Club Challenge against the St George Illawarra Dragons as well as the cup semi- and final. That was why, to have a realistic chance of repeating last October's Grand Final triumph, they surely had to take the most direct route, by beating St Helens on Sunday afternoon. With a weekend off, their first since early February, they would have remained a decent bet to win a likely rematch with Saints on home soil in a fortnight, and could then have relied on their big-match experience to give them a fighting chance against Warrington at Old Trafford.
Instead, they face a distinctly tricky elimination match next Sunday evening at home to a Catalan Dragons team who have already won impressively at the DW Stadium this season, and looked in terrific shape in demolishing Hull KR in Perpignan on Saturday. If they come through that, Wigan will presumably be condemned to another draining derby with Saints, this time on neutral territory at Widnes ? unless Warrington breathe life into Super League's controversial Club Call innovation by choosing to face Wigan on home territory and leaving Huddersfield or more probably Leeds to have a bash at St Helens.
Even if Wigan stagger on to Old Trafford, which would be a monumental achievement to rank alongside any of their highlights of the past two seasons, how could they possibly retain sufficient energy to win there? Where there is Sam Tomkins, there is at least a sliver of hope, as he showed with an admirable never-say-die performance against Saints in which the many positives comfortably outweighed the endearing negative of fluffing a try-scoring chance by attempting to ground the ball with a one-hand flourish.
But that was a seriously tired Wigan performance, in which they made far more errors in both attack and defence than has become the norm under Maguire. There is no disgrace in that ? in fact the way they kept coming back to give Saints some seriously worrying moments reflected the character of a champion team more clearly than any number of facile wins. If and when Wigan do bow out this season, the knowledgeable majority of their supporters will surely salute the effort that has gone into another terrific season in which they have achieved the major objective of returning to, and winning at, Wembley, rather than bemoaning the understandable post-Wembley slump.
But that also raises the question of when, or even whether, the Double might be done again. Only two teams have won both the Challenge Cup and the Grand Final in the Super League era, and when Brian Noble's Bradford Bulls achieved the feat in 2003 it was much more manageable as the Cup final was still played in the spring. When it was put back to late August three years later, Daniel Anderson's St Helens also doubled up, beating Huddersfield at Twickenham and then Hull at Old Trafford within a couple of months. But no team since has approached the dominance that Anderson's Saints then enjoyed, which is an easily-overlooked tribute to the greater competitiveness of the Super League these days, at least at the top end.
2) Golden Graham?
All that about Wigan, and scarcely a word for St Helens. But weren't they terrific? I've had a theory for a while, since Royce Simmons followed a solid home win against Huddersfield by relishing the opportunity to give his exhausted senior players a breather to freshen them up for the play-offs, that they could be dark horses. The absence of Gary Wheeler, Leon Pryce, Kyle Eastmond and Chris Flannery put that theory to an extreme test at Wigan, but it ? or rather they ? came through with flying colours.
Pryce's replacement, Lee Gaskell, was admirably cool in the crucial opening exchanges, with his improvised left-foot grubber to create the position for one of their early tries earning the ultimate accolade for a Saints stand-off, of being in the Tommy Martyn class. His half-back partner Jonny Lomax was wonderful throughout, with a couple of brave and important tackles sticking in the mind as much as the break that led to a second try for Paul Wellens.
Wasn't it great to see Wellens enjoying another famous win over Wigan at the DW? Probably not for the Wigan fans, but they've had plenty of moments to savour in the past couple of seasons. Wellens might not have that many more, in fact he might have wondered if he would ever again be on the winning side against Wigan after that tough defeat in the Cup semi-final.
The same goes, with knobs on, for James Graham, a truly heroic warrior. The effort he showed to stop Tomkins at a crucial stage late in the second half was absolutely inspirational. As hinted above, I'd have strongly fancied Warrington to beat Wigan in the Grand Final most have been expecting for most of the season. But if, as must now be most likely, it is Saints and Graham who reach Old Trafford for the sixth consecutive season, I'm not sure I'd back against them.
3) Wolves in waiting
Not that Warrington could have been any more impressive in hammering Huddersfield 47-0 as the play-offs began with an exhibition rather than a contest. They were expansive and entertaining at times, of course, as they have been for most of the last two seasons. But they were also tough and clinical when it mattered, qualities that deserted them in the play-offs last autumn, in the aftermath of their second consecutive Wembley win.
They also have Paul Wood and Ben Westwood to come back into contention for places in the pack in a fortnight, although Simon Grix has surely made himself undroppable and Mike Cooper has also been excellent in the last few weeks. Chris Bridge looks good at loose forward, Richie Myler is in the form of his life at scrum-half, and the same goes for Ryan Atkins out wide. All that lot are British, which offers encouragement ahead of the forthcoming Gillette Four Nations series ? especially when the performances of Lomax, Tomkins, Graham, James Roby and many others on Sunday are taken into account.
But it is Lee Briers, who has suffered more than anyone through Warrington's years of underachievement, who continues to be their most watchable player and personality as he nears a first appearance at Old Trafford to add to the Wembley double that came so late in his career. With him on one side, and Graham on the other, a Warrington-Saints Grand Final wouldn't be short of colour.
4) Less would be more
Having said all that, the first round of the play-offs was anything but a big success. Three of the four games were walkovers, providing further ammunition to critics of the top-eight structure. Having tried to explain it myself to a couple of bemused presenters of the 5 Live breakfast show before 7 o'clock on Saturday morning, I'm more convinced than ever that it's just too complicated to carry much appeal beyond rugby league devotees. It also rewards mediocrity, with the thrashings inflicted on both Hull clubs in Perpignan and Leeds seeming to confirm that after finishing seventh and eighth in a 14-team competition, neither of them deserved to be there in the first place.
But the absence of a threat of relegation means that without such an expanded play-off series, there would be dozens of meaningless matches from May onwards. My solution, as advocated before, would be two divisions of 10, with automatic promotion and relegation between the two, and a reversion to a top-five or even top-three play-off series. But there's no chance of that happening any time soon, so we might as well make the best of what we've got. At least next weekend's games both promise to be interesting enough.
5) A sore point
The best play-off action last weekend came in the National Rugby League, where I'm told the games between Wests Tigers and New Zealand Warriors, and especially Brisbane's dramatic win against St George Illawarra Dragons, were absolutely compelling. But from this distance, you'd have to say a third Manly-Melbourne Grand Final in the last four years is now a more likely outcome of next weekend's semi-finals than a fairytale climax featuring Darren Lockyer.
The great Brisbane captain gave his lustrous legacy another polish by kicking a match-winning drop goal in extra-time to defeat a Dragons team coached by his former mentor Wayne Bennett, despite having suffered a suspected fractured cheekbone 11 minutes earlier. "It's a little bit sore, to be honest," Lockyer said afterwards. And people wonder why rugby league fans in this country as well as Australia are underwhelmed by the character of most Premier League footballers.
6) Of Cougars and Canada
This week's Six has been brought to you on the train to London for the Cricket Writers' Lunch at Lord's to celebrate Lancashire's magnificent County Championship triumph, so it's a bit of a rush job, and suddenly there are a few bits and bobs to cram into the last tackle.
First, congratulations to Workington, who shade St Helens as the team of the week for their win at Keighley in the Championship One play-offs. It guarantees a Cumbrian presence at the Co-operative Championship finals day at Warrington in a fortnight, and there were a couple of grand old names from the county playing key roles at Cougar Park with Darren Holt at half-back and Gary Charlton in the dug-out.
Keighley now get a second chance at home to a Rochdale Hornets team whose run through the play-offs has been an equally uplifting story, and in the Championship itself there have been good wins for Featherstone and Sheffield.
Further afield, an Italian touring team gained invaluable experience from a couple of friendlies against Coventry and Loughborough University last week, Duhaney Park are the new Jamaican champions, and Dorcol remain the dominant force in the Serbian domestic competition after five tries from Adam Nedic in their Grand Final victory over Car Lazar.
Finally, hats off to Canada for an 18-16 win against the USA in Markham, Ontario, which was apparently screened on national television, and featured a strong performance by the former Swinton hooker Chris Diamond. Now, off to that lunch. But please join the debate below ? especially if you're from Canada, Serbia, Jamaica or Workington.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/sep/19/wigan-st-helens-set-of-six
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