Key events
Half-time reading:
Penalty, and half time: Hull KR 10-2 Wigan
A sweet strike through the sticks from Keighran off the tee, under plenty of pressure, and those half time oranges will taste a little sweeter for Wigan now.
40 min: Martin is caught offside for Hull KR after the ball bounced off a teammate’s head, and Keighran will kick for the posts to end the half, trying to get Wigan on the board. This would be a big psychological boost.
39 min: On balance there’s no doubt Hull KR have won the physical battle in this first half. Their intensity and line speed in defence has been exceptional, after that little wobble at the start. French and Farrell may live to regret those missed chances early doors.
38 min: Lewis puts up a bomb for Hull KR deep into Wigan territory. Peet’s side are pinned back and will struggle to get on the board before half time at this rate.
34 min: Now Ellis coughs up possession for Wigan and Mikey Lewis pounces in midfield for an easy turnover! In truth there have been errors from both sides, but it’s Hull KR who have steadied the ship after enduring a difficult opening. Wigan, at the moment, appear to be falling apart slightly. A big team talk for Peet incoming.
32 min: Wigan’s Harry Smith opts for a low, raking kick for touch from a central position around halfway, seemingly to give his team a chance to reset. They are being put under serious pressure by their opponents who look energised by the lead they’ve built.
30 min: Hull KR’s Sauaso Sue has been receiving treatment on the sideline after taking that head knock early on.
29 min: Wigan are back up to the full complement of players with O’Neill’s time in the sin-bin over.
Try! 26 min: Hull KR 10-0 Wigan (Burgess)
Magnificent finish in the corner by Burgess! This is looking ominous for Wigan now … A mistake under the posts gave Hull KR a perfect attacking platform off a scrum and they didn’t let their opponents off the hook. Lewis this time chooses to spin the ball left rather than sell another dummy after a well-timed decoy move by the runner on his shoulder. Conversion missed by Martin.
26 min: A knock-on under the posts by Wigan and a massive attacking platform for Hull!
25 min: “Funny how O’Neill’s tackle goes upstairs for endless reviews, but Wairea Hargreaves head-on-head contact with French doesn’t get a second look,” emails Gareth.
24 min: Hull are on top now, not just because Wigan have a player in the bin. Peet is looking increasingly disillusioned as the TV director keeps returning to him sitting in the stand. There is some unusual inaccuracy from Wigan at times and they are having to defend for their lives.
Try! 20 min: Hull KR 6-0 Wigan (Lewis)
What a sensational score by Lewis, who throws a sensational dummy, shimmies beyond a couple of would-be tacklers and sprints in under the posts! Mourgue converts. Lewis has already put in a couple of big moments in defence. Now he’s put his side in front after they’ve been on the back foot for most of this match!
18 min: It’s a yellow card! That’s possibly a bit lucky that it’s not a red? O’Neill is off for 10 minutes.
“He should shake the referee’s hand and walk off,” says the co-commentator.
18 min: That’s a horrible tackle by O’Neill and the anger of May’s Hull KR teammates was entirely justified. What are the officials going to decide?
18 min: Deary me, there’s a huge scrap involving, well, everyone, after a tip tackle by Brad O’Neill on Tyrone May.
16 min: So Hull KR have got out of jail a couple of times in the opening quarter of an hour. A high hit on Abbas Miski now brings another penalty for Wigan. Up in the stands Peet, the Wigan head coach, looks somewhat concerned, as if he knows how costly those moments of innaccuracy from his side may prove to be.
14 min: It was a magnificent little kick from Marshall that put French in over the try-line … Mikey Lewis ran back to challenge under the posts, and French spilled the ball at the all-important moment. I’m not entirely sure why the video ref needed so many replays at it was pretty obviously a knock-on …
13 min: Is French in the for the first try for Wigan? Looks like he’s failed to ground it, on replay. There’s a long check …
13 min: Adam Keighran does brilliantly to turn over Mourgue and Hull KR are pinned back near the try-line once again … it looks only a matter of time for Wigan here before the score.
12 min: Waerea-Hargreaves is penalised for a clear shoulder charge, with no attempt to wrap his arms, and Wigan look to run the ball from inside their own half again.
The score is nil-nil and it’s shaping up to be just as hard-fought as last season’s final when Wigan won 9-2.
10 min: Arthur Mourgue, of Hull KR, semi-spills a long kick down the middle at full-back – but it bounces backwards and he’s OK to nab it and sprint back into contact.
8 min: After a smart cross-kick, Liam Farrell is teed up wonderfully by a magnificent no-look one-handed pass inside by French … but the second row Farrell spills it with the try-line beckoning! That should be first blood to Wigan. Superb stuff from French. Can Hull KR capitalise?
5 min: Trouble for Hull KR? Sue has taken a nasty head knock after getting in the wrong position for a tackle. He looks to be a bit dazed.
Anyway, Wigan are firmly in the ascendancy, Hull KR are yet to escape from their own half.
4 min: Wigan’s first possession ends with a big up and under near the try-line that is claimed, magnificently, by Joe Burgess under lots of pressure from opponents. A tremendous take in the air.
2 min: Sauaso Sue takes it up first for Hull KR. Mikey Lewis eventually looks to kick downfield and Bevan French charges him down! Fortunately for Lewis, the ball squirts to a teammate.
First half kick-off
Let’s go.
Fireworks, indie music, the crowd roaring, all the pomp and ceremony of a final. A few light warm-up handling drills for the players. We’re moments away now.
“The Pigeon Detectives are an English indie rock band from Rothwell in Leeds, West Yorkshire, who formed in 2004.”
It says here. And they are playing a song, right now, live!
John Millington and Sir Billy Boston, two legends of the game, are greeted by the crowd before kick-off.
Cameras in the changing rooms: The Hull KR players are hugging it out. Wigan are standing in a circle having a final, quick motivational chat. The players will be out on the pitch shortly!
This being Old Trafford, will anyone be playing 3-4-3?
Old Trafford is packed, there’s a massive GRAND FINAL canvas draped across middle of the pitch, and now it’s time for a belting rendition of “Jerusalem” from Camilla Kerslake.
You’ve got time to have a crack at Paul Campbell’s sports quiz of the week before kick-off:
I love pressure too. Can’t get enough of the stuff if I’m honest.
“It doesn’t get old,” says Wigan head coach Matt Peet of the occasion. “This is why we do it. We need to savour this.”
The Sky reporter, Jenna Brooks, asks a good question: Is there a point when Peet steps back, and hands the players the reins?
“Yeah, weeks ago. That’s a process that we go through, through the year.
“There’s times when it’s coach-heavy and coach-led. But as the season goes on, and lessons are learned, we hand it over. Ultimately we can’t play the game for them. They grip it.”
How does he keep pressure off his players?
“They love pressure. Pile it on. That’s why we’re here. If you don’t like pressure, sign for another club.”
“Being the most consistent team [in regular season] means nothing today,” the Hull KR coach, Willie Peters, tells Sky Sports. “It’s about today. Winning the moment. Today’s a big moment, and we need to win it.
“We’ve got to be switched on for 80 minutes against this team. I’ve got a lot of faith in the group. Now it’s about going out and expressing themselves.”
Hull KR’s Challenge Cup win, in early June, was their first silverware in 40 years. Quite an amazing story.
Here’s a piece looking back to the 2015 Grand Final, by Gavin Willacy, with Josh Walters – who scored the key try for Leeds on that occasion:
Ten years ago this week Josh Walters took a simple pass and plunged over the tryline at Old Trafford to score the final try in the Super League Grand Final as Leeds secured their seventh title. There were 73,512 fans inside the stadium and a couple of million more watching at home. He humbly plays down his role in the treble-clinching triumph. “I never say it was the winning try because Kev [Sinfield] still had to kick the two points – my try brought us level and there was still 15 minutes left.”
Aaron Bower
It is not just the walls of Wigan Warriors’ plush Robin Park training complex that are draped with the historic moments of rugby league’s most famous club. Almost everywhere you turn in the town, there is a nod to the great players and triumphs Wigan recalls with immense pride.
The modern era has not exactly been short on supply when it comes to similar memorable moments but in terms of teams and players that will stand the test of time, it is not unreasonable to suggest this current incarnation of Wigan Warriors is on the verge of entering the pantheon of the club’s all-time greats.
How do the bookies see it?
Hull KR 7/5
Wigan 4/7
Draw 18/1
(Odds from Boyle Sports)
Hull KR finished top of the pile in the regular season, with 22 wins out of 27 games. They had a points difference of +494.
Wigan, with 21 wins, were 461pts in credit.
Teams
Hull KR: Mourgue, Davies, Hiku, Gildart, Burgess, Lewis, May, Sue, McIlorum, Waerea-Hargreaves, Hadley, Batchelor, Minchella. Replacements: Litten, Luckley, Whitbread, Martin.
Wigan Warriors: Field, Miski, Keighran, Wardle, Marshall, French, Smith, Byrne, O’Neill, Thompson, Walters, Farrell, Ellis. Replacements: Havard, Nsemba, Mago, Leeming.
Referee: Liam Moore
Aaron Bower
Neil Hudgell has witnessed highs this summer that he and a generation of Hull KR supporters perhaps thought they would never get to experience, but even in these most euphoric of times the low moments are never far from the forefront of his mind.
There have been plenty of those during his 20 years as owner of his boyhood club. Flirtations with administration, relegation from Super League in the most dramatic circumstances in 2016 courtesy of an extra-time defeat by Salford and a 50-0 loss to Leeds in the 2015 Challenge Cup final that Hudgell ranks as his lowest ebb.
We’ve got time to enjoy some pre-match reading before kick-off, which is coming up … don’t forget you can email me with your thoughts, hopes, expectations and even fears.
Preamble
Wigan Warriors stand on the verge of greatness. Victory at Old Trafford today would secure three consecutive Super League titles, placing them in the same bracket as their most legendary predecessors at league’s winningest club. “We’re 80 minutes away from that,” said the captain Liam Farrell, “and I believe we can go down as one of Wigan’s great teams.”
The only problem? Their opponents, Hull KR, are buoyant after winning two trophies already this season and will not feel like underdogs, even against a side that have claimed the title two seasons running.
Hull KR will be all the more motivated after last season’s Grand Final defeat by same opponents, when they lost 9-2. That sounds more like a terrible poker hand than a rugby score, but shows we are very likely to witness a tense, ultra-competitive tussle over the next few hours. Let’s get it on!
Kick-off: 6pm BST
