Masters versus apprentices. History breakers versus history makers. The club that reign supreme over rugby league against the team aiming for the ultimate coup d’etat. However you dress it up, Saturday evening’s Super League Grand Final has all the makings of a classic and more subplots than you could ever imagine.
In the red corner, there is Wigan Warriors. Defending champions and so much more. They currently hold all four major trophies available to win: the World Club Challenge, the Challenge Cup, the League Leader’s Shield and the one they are aiming to defend on Saturday, the Super League title.
There have been some legendary Wigan sides of the past and this group is one win away from joining them.
Allow this statistic to sink in. In the 129-year history of rugby league, only five teams have won all the major trophies on offer to them in one season: Hunslet in 1907-08, Huddersfield in 1914-15, Swinton in 1927-28 and Wigan in 1994-95. It has been achieved once in nearly 100 years. Victory on Saturday evening, and Matt Peet’s class of 2024 join that group.
“I want to be known for being a part of a team that has dominated,” Wigan forward Tyler Dupree says. “It would be a great accolade for us as a team. I think more about the history side of things. We’re all here to create history and we’ve got a great group here that want to be a part of Wigan’s history for a long time.”
But in the, erm, other red corner, there is a club bidding for their own place in history. For 39 years, Hull Kingston Rovers have waited for a moment like this. Nearly four decades without a major trophy, their last triumph was the old First Division title in 1985. There have been heartbreaking close calls along the way, including an extra-time defeat to Leigh in last year’s Challenge Cup final and another Wembley loss in 2015.
Wigan’s last trophy was 22 days ago; Hull KR’s was over 14,000 days ago. When Super League began in 1996, Rovers were in the sport’s third tier. They finished bottom of Super League as recently as 2020 and were hit hard financially due to the pandemic but, since the appointment of Willie Peters in 2023, they have emerged as one of the best sides in the game.
Led by half-back Mikey Lewis, the newly crowned Man of Steel and local lad done good, Rovers have threats all throughout their side. It has been some transformation in such a short space of time.
“Everything has changed here,” their captain, Elliot Minchella, who signed for the club in 2019, says. “How long have you got for me to explain everything that’s different? This is the pinnacle. It’s the game everyone dreams of playing in. But we’re not just proud to be here, we’re here to win.” The omens are against Hull KR, though. No first-time Grand Finalist has won at Old Trafford for 25 years, with five teams losing on debut since then.
Furthermore, Super League is awaiting its first new winner of the competition since 2004: Warrington, Castleford, Salford, Hull FC and Catalans Dragons have got this far and lost. Then, there is 1985 and all that, too.
But the Robins will be backed by a 20,000-strong travelling support on Saturday, many of whom have seen the bleakest of times.
“Hull KR to the community of East Hull is everything,” the club’s chief executive, Paul Lakin, says.
“People would genuinely miss a meal to buy a ticket. You have to repay that. When I arrived [in 2020] it was a huge job, bigger than I ever thought possible. But I’m proud of what we’ve achieved while also breathing life into our community.”
This is the latest chapter in a rivalry that has had at least three pulsating instalments in the past 18 months alone. Last season, the two played out an incredible Challenge Cup semi-final which the Robins won in extra-time, before Wigan returned the favour emphatically in this year’s final four en route to winning at Wembley.
Just a few weeks ago, the pair locked horns once again in a thriller, this time with Wigan edging a gripping league clash to effectively all but seal top spot ahead of Rovers going into the playoffs. If anyone can lay a glove on this all-conquering Warriors side, it might be Hull KR.
While recent Grand Finals have had an era-ending feel about them including Rob Burrow – who will be honoured on Saturday with a newly named man of the match trophy – and Danny McGuire’s final Leeds game in 2017, and Sam Tomkins’ retirement match last season, this one seems different. Rugby league’s newest rivalry very much feels like it is only in its infancy, with these squads largely unchanged next season.
The individual match-ups on Saturday evening make for compelling viewing alone. Lewis versus Bevan French in the battle of the competition’s two most creative talents, and Super League’s top try scorer, Liam Marshall, against Hull KR wing – and former Wigan player – Joe Burgess are two that leap out. But throw in the endless storylines, and is it any wonder we are set for the biggest grand final crowd – almost 70,000 – in years?
The odds and the omens look heavily stacked in Wigan’s favour: but a word to the wise to those who see this as a foregone conclusion. The Warriors will be hoping for an unprecedented seventh consecutive major trophy on Saturday evening. The last team to stop them winning one? Hull KR, in that aforementioned cup semi-final last season.
