mr.optimis
"I think it's one of things that makes rugby league special: it's a running game," said Robbie Paul, Bradford's captain, after the 100th Challenge Cup final. Unfortunately no one has scored a try from the running game since the 98th.
Paul and Bradford had scored four tries to Leeds's two in the 2000 final at Murrayfield to win 24-18, with all six touchdowns coming from kicks. On Saturday two tries, in the 12th and 25th minutes, were enough for St Helens to beat the Bulls, and this time they were produced by the boot of Sean Long.
The first Challenge Cup final at Twickenham will be remembered as the day a truly outstanding Saints team toughed it out to complete their treble. There was precious little of the brilliant attacking rugby that characterised their World Club Championship victory over Brisbane in January, or their second successive Super League title last year, or their route to this cup final. Instead two breathless semi-finals were followed by an error-strewn slog in driving rain on a slippery patchwork quilt of a pitch.
Saints won partly because of the meticulous attention to detail of their coach Ian Millward, who, Long revealed, had been down to Twickenham two weeks earlier to assess the size of the in-goal areas. They were big, and well grassed, so Millward built his game plan around well weighted grubber kicks involving his midfield quartet of Long, Tommy Martyn, Paul Sculthorpe and Keiron Cunningham.
From the first, in the 10th minute, Bradford lost their Australian centre Shane Rigon to the sin bin for obstructing Martyn. While he was off, Long's second and third kicks produced Martyn's third cup final try, following his Lance Todd Trophy-winning performance against Bradford in 1997.
The scrum-half then secured his own man of the match award as his fourth grubber ricocheted off the ankle of Daniel Gartner for Cunningham to stroll between the posts.
mr.optimis
Paul and Bradford had scored four tries to Leeds's two in the 2000 final at Murrayfield to win 24-18, with all six touchdowns coming from kicks. On Saturday two tries, in the 12th and 25th minutes, were enough for St Helens to beat the Bulls, and this time they were produced by the boot of Sean Long.
The first Challenge Cup final at Twickenham will be remembered as the day a truly outstanding Saints team toughed it out to complete their treble. There was precious little of the brilliant attacking rugby that characterised their World Club Championship victory over Brisbane in January, or their second successive Super League title last year, or their route to this cup final. Instead two breathless semi-finals were followed by an error-strewn slog in driving rain on a slippery patchwork quilt of a pitch.
Saints won partly because of the meticulous attention to detail of their coach Ian Millward, who, Long revealed, had been down to Twickenham two weeks earlier to assess the size of the in-goal areas. They were big, and well grassed, so Millward built his game plan around well weighted grubber kicks involving his midfield quartet of Long, Tommy Martyn, Paul Sculthorpe and Keiron Cunningham.
From the first, in the 10th minute, Bradford lost their Australian centre Shane Rigon to the sin bin for obstructing Martyn. While he was off, Long's second and third kicks produced Martyn's third cup final try, following his Lance Todd Trophy-winning performance against Bradford in 1997.
The scrum-half then secured his own man of the match award as his fourth grubber ricocheted off the ankle of Daniel Gartner for Cunningham to stroll between the posts.
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