As a neutral what you want most of all is a competitive game.

At the match i genuinely thought it was competitive, i spent most of the second half waiting for Hull to do something because they had to at some point. I didn't really feel comfortable until about 4 mins to go and only started celebrating when Sam scored. I thought it was a tense and exciting final played in dreadful conditions (there were football games abandoned in the capital).

However, having watch the game at home without the tension, for the neutral it was a poor game, nowhere near as bad as some are suggesting. It must have been incredibly frustrating for the Hull fans. Tactically we got it spot on, for them i thought Miller froze and we forced Holdsworth to make over 30 tackles. Defences were certainly on top, in those conditions they usually are as it's harder to attack therefore easier to defend. There was a Leeds fan in front of me (nice lady BTW), she commented after about 60 how poor the game was, i replied if Hull had taken the 3 easily kickable penalties and it was 8 - 6 instead of 8 nil what would you think then? As a spectacle all it needed was a few points from Hull and you have a very different perspective of the game.

To those of you who come on here and comment how poor it was what reaction do you expect? Save those comments for the VT because if you make them on here then you will be treated as a troll and rightly so.

Some good points, I didn't start celebrating until the very end either as like you say, all it needed was one try from Hull and we would have had a very tense finish on our hands. When the Hull Fullback made that break my heart sank, It was a certain try for me and somehow Charnley made it back, and it was Defensive efforts that made the difference yesterday.


Btw if you haven't had a look on the VT you should take a look, It makes for comical reading!

I said at the time, the Charnley tackle was the game breaker. If Hull score there, I think they'd have gone on to win. I actually felt some sympathy for the Hull fans, to have such a great cup run and then get nilled in the final, must be a heart breaking feeling.

We do have a normally very entertaining game, that’s why we love it but being honest how many sports would set out just to entertain first and win second? Sport IMO its win first, end of.

It might have not been the great game we all would have wanted to see, but I for one only stopped biting my nails when Holdsworth knocked on from Pat’s drop-out. Then I thought, we’ve won this!

Let's take this statement at face value and ask that given that the wet weather determined the quality of the game, how likely is it that televised RL games will regularly be played in heavy rain?

Not going to happen that often is it?

Still, that's the kind of non-point I'd expect from an idiot who described the game as a disgrace to RL on another thread.

Unless you were down there you couldn't realise just how bad the conditions were. It was heaving down. Wigan played the better wet weather rugby, just as Widnes did the other week v Wire.

BOTH sides defended really well, it's a side of the game that the vast majority of spectators seem to ignore, Harrison Hansen was superb in that facet of his game, how would have got the Lance Todd for me.

Anyway that's Challenge Cup #19 for Wigan, the third time we've nilled a club at Wembley and now become the FIRST town to hold the F.A. Cup and Challenge Cup in the same year.

Not bad for a little town eh!!!

Reminded me of the 86 Premiership final v Warrington at Old Trafford when our star studded team got the big stage after missed out on Wembley and having won everything else. Persistent rain and a poor pitch ruined the game and it finished 8-0. Did we care then or now?

Name me one sport which relies on money to survive that is only interested in entertainment first and wining second? Even a bad team takes the field with its first intention to win a game. You write about entertainment and survival is every football match great, is the dark side RU, a marvellous spectacle? I’d say most of RL is a much better to watch than these, and I’m sorry that yesterday didn’t come up to your very high standards and demands for sport, but take a look at F1 this aft, I bet that always has you on the edge of your seat! I believe your just trying to devalue a win that was played in not the most favourable of conditions; it’s not typical of the sport.

As I said on another thread, the irony is that people would have felt more entertained if the defence on show had been less skillful. For all the game's other faults, both teams performed their defensive sets very well, way above average, but most "fans" will never see that as entertainment.

I took a friend's son to the final yesterday. Ten years old, never watched rugby league before, born and raised in the south with no real clue of where Wigan or Hull even are. He loved it.

Watching the game back now. The first half is as intense as any recent cup final, yes there were a few mistakes but it's not half as bad as many are making out. Still got the 2nd half to watch mind...

You're dead right about the first half. I've not watched the 2nd stanza yet but from memory I think Hull were worn out and their completion rate got even worse as a result. At that point I imagine a lot of people stopped believing they could score and make a game of it, even with only 10 points in it.

That doesn't make it the worst final ever, mind, nor does it mean we can't appreciate the positives, but as we all know the RL fan community aren't the most positive bunch. Lets face it there was always going to be a thread saying it was the worst final ever and that the 78k attendance means RL has died.

Watched the match back now. Defence's were on top, Hull in particular defended very well and it may very well be that effort that took the energy from them when it came to going forward with the ball. The game in general wasn't as bad as some would have you believe, I'd say it got very scrappy in the last 25 minutes inparticular . mainly due to Hull chancing their arm a bit, which as you would expect led to a lot of errors. Although a few of the Mistakes Hull made we're very poor.