Jack Welsby helped sensational St Helens make history in Australia and fired: "You shouldn’t have written us off."
The England ace delivered a stunning player of the match performance as the Super League champions shocked NRL premiers Penrith Panthers. Ice-cool Lewis Dodd nailed an 83rd minute golden point drop goal as outstanding Saints became only the second English side ever to win the World Club Challenge Down Under. They replicated Wigan’s famous effort of beating Brisbane in 1994 and instantly entered rugby league folklore.
But steely Saints, in Paul Wellens’ first game in charge and with ex-coach Kristian Woolf sat alongside, had been given a massive 24 point start by Aussie bookies despite winning four successive Grand Finals. Full-back Welsby, who scored Saints’ opener and set up Konrad Hurrell for a 12-0 lead, said: “That's their own fault isn’t it?
“We've done it four times in a row back home and were under no illusions we could come here and do this. We kept quiet about it and fancied ourselves. We proved it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s probably the toughest game I’ve ever played in. Penrith are an outstanding outfit and were rightly favourites but I knew what we could do. And we’ve done it.”
But Welsby, 21, feared the worst when spilling Stephen Crichton’s kick to allow Brian To’o to score with just 88 seconds of normal time remaining. World Cup winner Nathan Cleary held his nerve to slot the conversion and tie a thrilling contest at 12-12. It reminded Welsby of his costly extra-time blunder which allowed Crichton to slot Samoa’s drop goal winner in England’s World Cup semi-final heartache just three months ago.
He conceded: “I went through every emotion in that last five minutes. I thought I’d done it again, knocking on at the end like I did with England. But we’ve got special half-backs and for Johnny Lomax and Doddy to come up with a play like that after what we’d gone through in that game was unbelievable. It’s just everything we deserved. This is the best club in the world and we’ve proved it tonight.”
Saints had already botched two drop goal attempts from Lomax and Dodd when leading 12-6 late on. But it was Crichton’s fumble that set up their big chance in extra-time and Dodd nailed it. It was fairytale stuff for the scrum-half, 21, who snapped his Achilles last April and missed the rest of the season. Dodd said: “I knew that one was going over. It was great work from Al Walmsley to get me a fast play-the-ball. We don’t do stuff for ourselves here. We do it for people around us. Our game plan is simple but it's not easy; that's the mindset we went in with today. It’s an amazing feeling.”
Welsby made three try-saving tackles to underline his star quality but there were epic performances all over as fired-up Saints rattled star-studded Penrith from the off. Iconic captain James Roby is 37 and won Saints’ last World Club Challenge in 2007 but showed he’s still the best hooker on the planet with a remarkable display.
The game had been put back by almost an hour due to expected high temperatures. But instead there was a massive downpour and fierce electrical storm which Saints handled easily with a near perfect first-half display. Welsby went over after James Roby and Jonny Lomax exploited a ruck to put Curtis Sironen through a hole, and he delivered the scoring pass.
And Welsby then turned creator, surging through the middle and creating the attack from which Hurrell went over out wide. Tommy Makinson had slotted a conversion before going off with a head knock so Mark Percival’s penalty made it 12-0 in the 44th minute.
The second half had been delayed for safety reasons as lightning intensified. When Izack Tago latched onto a kick to score for Penrith in the 52nd minute, Saints’ England boys must have thought lightening was going to strike twice after having a try disallowed, before Brian To'o pounced on a rare Welsby fumble to go over in the dying seconds.
Cleary added his second conversion to ensure extra time. But this brilliant Saints side showed why they are now undeniably one of the greatest in the sport’s history, and after Crichton knocked-on inside his own half, the fashioned the chance for Dodd to seal glory.
Penrith co-captain Isaah Yeo admitted: “To come across from the other side of the world and put on a performance like that, Saints were outstanding.”
