Warriors see off Hull for Challenge Cup glory!

WIGAN WARRIORS           16 - 10                         HULL FC

Tries: Thornley,  S.Tomkins

Goals: Richards 4

WIGAN crowned champs for 19th time    pic v a: BBC SPORTS

The Wigan Warriors won their 19th Challenge Cup trophy on Saturday, with a hard grafted 16-0 win over Hull FC at a miserable wet Wembley.

Wigan shut out the Humberside club to secure victory, however it will not go down on a list of the most memorable cup final`s in Challenge Cup history due to the persistant rain that fell.

Wigan had lost 4 of their previous 6 games in Super League prior to this Cup win, with their last win coming against their opponent`s cross city rivals in the final, the  Hull Kingston Rovers back on the 2nd of August when they won 21-16 at Craven Park.  

For their opponents the Hull FC, they were on a winning streak coming into this Challenge Cup final , as they had won three games on the bounce. That included a massacring of the Widnes Vikings couple of games back when they beat them 72-10 at the KC Stadium in Hull.

The only meeting between these two saw side, saw the Warriors take the spoils that day 28-20 on Humberside. Wigan and Hull had met twice before in the Challenge cup final, with the cherries & white getting the better of  the black & white of Hull on both occasions. 

The last encounter between them in the final, was way back on May 4th 1985, which is regarded by some to be the greatest ever Challenge Cup final in history.

It was played out in front of a record crowd at Wembley of 99,801.

That game saw Hull 22-8 down at half time, before they made a comeback and got pipped 28-24 in the end.

Hull FC had one more problem too contend with as well ,as it  may be more mental than physical than anything. But Hull FC  had NEVER won at Wembley despite winning the cup on two separate occasions, those two times was a replay in the 1982 final, which saw the replay held at Leeds Elland Road after they drew 14 all at Wembley, while the other time was back in 2004, when they beat the Leeds Rhinos 25-24 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

It was horrible day to play in as with the weather being grey overhead and the rain falling all game, it made it pretty horrid for the players to be in, as it wouldn`t be the showpiece Cup final of normal. 

Wigan`s Pat Richards had a terrible start to game, when from kick off he put the ball out on the full, giving Hull a chance to score early, Hull couldn`t capitalize on the error as they were stopped by a mean Wigan defense. Wigan had a lot of early possession and were putting Hull under immense pressure early on. Wigan had thought they had scored a try through Richards, though the referee didn`t seem to think the Australian had grounded the ball properly and so gave a knock on against him. 

 Iain Thornley scores opening Wigan try      PIC : ESPN.COM

Just when the Yorkshire side looked to have come back into the game, after they weathered (no pun intended) the Wigan storm, Iain Thornley then evaded a few weak tackles by the Hull FC players, to stretch over the try line for the Cherries & Whites and give them a lead in the final. Pat Richards kicked over the conversion for the Lancashire side as they led 6-0 and were the certainly the better side in the game.

Wigan had 60% possession in the first half hour of this match, but the scoreboard was telling the full story of this game, as they couldn`t hammer home the advantage. 

Both sets of players were making a lot of errors in this game, a lot due out the slippery condition caused by the rain and the fact the ball must have felt more like a bar of soap to the players, than that of a rugby ball.  

Hull were making more errors than their opponents were in the game. Hull got a bit of a boost when Aaron Heremaia came on for Hull and the New Zealander was using his speed to take on the Wigan defence, as the wet conditions was helping him avoid the tackles.

With a couple of minutes remaining in the half, Hull had to defend another set of six from the Warriors, as Hull were for the most of the first 40, defending in their own half.

Matt Smith tried a drop goal for Wigan from 35 yards out on a soggy Wembley field, however he missed it just as the half time hooter went. 

Hull FC were probably glad of the rest, as Wigan had dominated the half with 63% of the possession and their defence had stood up well to the task of stopping the Cup kings in this game so far.

For the Cherries and Whites of Wigan, they didn`t make the most of the possession they had in the half and should have done more than the one solitary try that they had scored. Though Pat Richards will think they should have had a second one, after his effort was turned down.

Second half started and the Warriors were awarded a penalty early on in the half, when Richard Whiting made a high tackle on a Wigan player, which resulted in  Pat Richards stepping up and kicking over the uprights for a 8-0 scoreline.

Hull you feel needed to respond quickly to get back into this match as they as they beging out played in very trickly and difficult circumstances.

Heremaia then won a penalty for his side, when he received a high tackle from a Wigan player, from that penalty though Danny Tickle knocked on and let Wigan off the hook. 

Hull had a great chance then, when Jamie Shaul broke away from near his own posts to dash past the Wigan defense and as headed towards the Wigan try line, Josh Charnley raced back with a last ditch tackle and robbed him of glory, Charnley produced a great try saving tackle on the Hull FC Full back to keep the opponents scoreless.

An amazing stat that was brought up early in the second half was that, Hull FC had recorded a 97% tackling success rate in this game.

More knock on`s were made by both sides, with the weather playing havoc and contributing to the terrible handling of the ball, as it was getting more and more greasy the ball now from this pesistance rain. 

There was then a nasty incident involving Darrell Goulding, who was knocked out cold when he attempted to tackle Kirk Yeaman and got injured in the process.

Goulding then received lengthy medical attention on the field and was eventually stretched off the field, to both sets of fans clapped him off the Wembley turf.

                                                       

Sam Tomkins scores 2nd Wigan try           PIC BBC SPORTS

Aaron Heremaia then speared Sean O Loughlin and gave Wigan a penalty, to which Pat Richards kicked over to extend the lead to 10-0 and in all honesty, Wigan were victors already really.  Hull FC had struggled to break down the watertight defence of Wigan on a soggy pitch. 

With less than ten minutes remaining, Hull was getting desperate and also was also causing them to make more mistakes due to it as well.

Tom Briscoe then kicked a ball on to chase, as he looked to be in the clear for Hull, but the move resulted in a scrum to the Humberside team, after a knock on by Wigan.

Wigan then was forced to kick out from under their own posts and the kick was fumbled by Daniel Holdworth, which was their 16th error of the game and had the black and whites side of Wembley with a collective head in hands moment.

Hull had four minutes to try and get back into this contest and avoid a hat-trick of losses to Wigan. Then came the knockout blow in the game, as Sam Tomkins scored the match winning try for Wigan, as Tomkins ran onto a ball that was kicked through and the man that, is perhaps destined for parts elsewhere after this season latched on it, out pacing the Hull defenders to score the try that gave Wigan their 19th Challenge cup trophy in their successful history.

VIA: YAHOO SPORTS

Richards then made it 4 from 4 with the boot to make the scoreline 16-0 and with that, the hooter sounded and the players all leapt on Sam Tomkins and celebrated the victory, with Matty Smith of Wigan getting the Lance Todd trophy for being man of the match.

pic via : sports.opera.com