It's been a difficult 24 hours and I have deliberately stayed off this forum since.

However, this last 24 hours has also proved something to me. If this had been Leeds or Warrington I would have had nasty abusives hurled in my face all day, but this has not been the case. All Wigan fans I know have been very gracious and it has proved that you are all ten times better than those teams supporters.

Our two clubs are great rivals but I see it as an intense but friendly rivalry, and long may this continue.

Wigan have been the best team in the country by some distance this season and you have thoroughly deserved the right to be called Champions. I am far from happy with our team's performance yesterday but had we played to our full potential, it's unlikely that we would have won.

You have all been through a lot over the last few years but the vast majority stuck with you through sometimes thin and thinner. For that alone, you deserve respect.

You have now come through the pain and earned your day in the sun. I hope we have ours again soon.

Enjoy your moment, but it will only be for twelve months, ok?!

Great post, thanks alot. Agree with you 100% about the friendly rivalry. Wigan and Saints fans seem to have a mutual respect for eachother which other clubs dont seem to have... its great to beat you though

Can't put it better than what has already been said. Great post and thanks for showing why the Wigan/Saints rivalary is the one that best shows what is great about our game.

As an aside we had one lone Saints supporter on our Double Decker coach full of Wiganers yesterday. I almost felt sorry for him....almost, but not quite...

Have to agree with DD. I was dreading logging back onto RLFANS after the defeat but it's not been that bad at all. I congratulated every Wigan fan i seen yesterday running back to the tram line and not once did i see Wigan fans gloating.

Fully deserved win Wigan. No Complaints.

Good luck in the World Club Challenge.

zzzz what with all this friendly garbage???

I have to say I am more than mildy amused with the fact the one they call "the King" finished his career with a successive FOUR grand final losses and more importantly lost in his last ever game against us?

This all fits in nicely with his dreadfully poor international career. How many times did he pull up "injured" just before a test series?

Still, he has his statue (even though it does look like Farrell).

Yours Sincerely,
A Wigan fan, gracious as always in victory

I think for Wigan fans it was more about the winning of the trophy after quite a barren spell than who it was actually against. Not saying beating Saints was irrelavent though, that is never the case.

Hard Lines. See you same again next year?

So good to see such gracious responses.

Couldn't agree more with the OP, even though the rivalry between the clubs is greater than that between us and Leeds or Warrington, I always find the relations between the Wigan and Saints fans to be better.

Long may it continue.

I think a lot of this thaw in relations with Saints has to do with the Wolfs.

The thought that Wire could ever replace Saints as our main rivals frankly makes me shudder. Don't get me wrong, I detest Saints with a passion (as any Wigan fan should) but the old adage is you judge a man by the calibre of his enemies, and frankly on that score I simply have to prefer Saints over Wire! The imbecilic Wolfs that have infested this board at times this season, their moronic and badly behaved fans at matches and the ridiculous claims that they make about being a great club (when they haven't beat Saints since shortly before the Boer War and are never going to win a SL title at this rate), ugh (shudders).

Saints fans on the other hand have taken this season's trials and tribulations in a way that has earned some grudging respect on my part (as has the way their side turned things around after a poor start) and their behaviour at the GF during the minute's silence did them great credit (in contrast to some of our idiots who should be deported to Warrington or Leigh immediately). Yes the McEwan's Lager shirt wearing muppets who turn out only for the big matches are irritating but it just isn't annoying on anywhere near the same level as the Dire Wolfs.

I suspect Saints fans feel the same way about the Wolfs, which makes two things we now agree on (the other being of course that matches between our two clubs are the greatest in British RL).

Ah D.D., I have a grudging respect for Saints and have enjoyed many a banter with you over the years, especially during our particularly rough patch in recent years. Hopefully this was reflected in the text message I sent to you on saturday night, although frankly I can't actually remember what I wrote.

That said, I still wish I was on the train to work with you this morning so you could see the full extent of my daft grin.

Wigan v Saints

The proper derby game. The real derby game. The only derby game.

Agree with Dave wholeheartedly.

I was glad that Wigan reached the final because I knew it would be a relaxed affair and not filled with vitriol fuelled by booze.

I was proved right. The final was a poor game form my perspective, but ultimately Saints ‘got away’ without being truly thumped which is what they deserved and everyone went home without any daft incidents.

The derby games should be a great affair next year.

It is a great rivalry but also a respectful one. The lack of trouble at the game was an indication of that, I think there were only 8 arrests out of nearly 72k people

Well done Wigan, easily the best team all year and you comfortably beat the previous 2 Grand Final winners in the play-off series to win it. I can't think of a more deserving team to win the comp.

I always felt it was Wigan's year so I ended up winning £137.31 on the result. Doesn't really make up for the defeat but meant going to the final cost me nothing!