The Road to Wembley – Challenge Cup Final 2021

Castleford Tigers and St Helens haven’t enjoyed a consistently smooth road to Wembley, but here’s how the two sides made it to this Saturday’s prestigious Challenge Cup final under the arch.

Always  one of the biggest dates in the Rugby League calendar, the Challenge Cup Final has come back around again and when it takes place this weekend – alongside the 1895 Cup final –  it will be the first sporting event to take place at Wembley since…well, you know when. 

Cas – finalists for the first time since 2014 – are looking for their first cup lift since 1986 as they take on twelve-time winners Saints. As for ‘the Red V’, it’s somewhat staggering that a side who has achieved so much in Super League hasn’t won this competition since 2008. The closest that they’ve come in recent times was reaching the final in 2019, resulting in an 18-4 loss to Warrington Wolves. 

As has undoubtedly been the case with all sports, the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic has taken a big toll on rugby league, exhibited in this year’s Challenge Cup. Normally open to a number of amateur sides from the National Conference Leagues, the competition this year had to be shaved down to six rounds instead of nine, only allowing Super League, Championship and League One clubs to enter. Following further complications, this was altered on the basis that League One clubs would make the decision on whether to enter themselves, with financial constraints meaning that only Barrow, Keighley and West Wales were entered from the third tier. 

Nonetheless, it has still been a terrific competition, and here is how the two finalists earned their chance to play on the hallowed turf at Wembley…

Third Round:

 Hull Kingston Rovers 32-33 Castleford Tigers AET 

The Tigers’ run to the final couldn’t have set off with a more nail biting start after they had fought back from the brink of defeat at Hull KR to get through to the next round by the barest of margins. 22-6 down at halftime, Daryl Powell’s side did tremendously to claw the scores back to 22-18, before tries from KR’S Shaun Kenny-Dowall and Jordan Abdull looked to have put the game out of sight.

However, a remarkable three tries in the last 8 minutes from Powell’s men – including an 80th minute Jordan Turner try – took the game to golden point extra time. 17 minutes of nail-biting action later, it was Gareth O’Brien who got the decisive drop goal to send Cas through. 

St.Helens 26-18 Leeds Rhinos

For Saints, they didn’t have to go to quite such lengths to qualify for the next round of the cup, though their victory was no less hard fought as they triumphed over Leeds by a scoreline of 26-18. Though never behind in the encounter, Kristian Woolf’s side knew that they were always in a gruelling game and their opponents simply refused to go away. Only a 79th minute Tommy Makinson try sealed the deal and booked Saints’ place in the last eight. 

Quarter-Final: 

Castleford Tigers 19-18 Salford Red Devils AET 

Cas really had to do it the hard way once again in the last eight of the competition, requiring yet another extra time victory, this time edging past a Salford side who were struggling in the league. Contrastingly to the previous round against Hull KR, this time it was Cas who were pegged back by an 80th minute try, Lee Mossop going over to level the scores up and take the game to golden point extra time. Rather than an excruciating extra 17 minutes though, Gareth O’Brien was able to kick the Tigers through in rather more straight forward fashion, converting a drop goal in just under two minutes of extra time. 

St.Helens 23-18 Huddersfield Giants 

Woolf’s Saints also progressed in eerily similar fashion to the previous round, edging past a game Huddersfield Giants side. A Regan Grace hat trick helped the Saints to a 23-18 victory at Emerald Headingley, with the team’s performance undeniably not overwhelmingly convincing, but having enough in it to get the job done and seal a place in the last four. 

Semi Final: 

This year’s semi-finals were played as a double header at Leigh Sports Village, with 600 tickets allocated to season ticket holders from the four participant clubs. The games were subsequently played after the Women’s Challenge Cup final, where St.Helens were victorious over the York City Knights. The men’s semi-final action kicked off with a 2:30pm game between Saints and Brett Hodgson’s Hull FC side. 

Hull FC 18-33 St.Helens 

This game certainly did not lack drama, with a huge moment of controversy taking place when the game was poised at a narrow scoreline of just 8-2 in favour of St Helens in the 25th minute. Hull FC centre – Josh Griffin – was carrying the ball out of defence when he dropped to the floor suddenly stricken with agonising pain, later discovered to be a knee ligament injury which will keep him out of action for the entirety of this campaign. Had Griffin kept hold of the ball, the game would have subsequently been stopped and he would have received immediate attention, but the 31-year-old spilt the ball and Saints’ Theo Fages was on hand to collect and go over for an easy score.

This, of course, infuriated the Hull FC players and supporters alike as the Black & Whites felt that the game should have been stopped, and that Fages should not have picked the ball up and scored the try. This did, in turn, raise many questions about gamesmanship but with no law in place to say that the Saints man couldn’t pick up the ball and score, he technically had every right to take advantage of the opportunity presented to him. However, many asked the question as to whether it was morally right to benefit from the unfortunate injury of a fellow player.

‘Gamesmanship’ or ‘Sportsmanship’ has, for as long as anyone can remember, been a grey area and one that no two athletes will have the same views on in every scenario presented to them. Of course, the counter argument to the ‘lack of morality’ point is that you do whatever it takes to win, particularly on such a big stage and the bottom line when all was said and done, was that this try gave Saints a commanding lead.

Despite a second half fightback from Hull FC, it was Woolf’s Saints who ran out victorious. There is no saying as to whether the result would have been different had the Josh Griffin incident not taken place, but there is no doubt that St Helens deserved to go through to the final on the balance of play. 

Castleford Tigers 35-20 Warrington Wolves 

Warrington were odds on favourites coming in to this game, holding a 38-14 victory over Cas from just two weeks prior to the semi-final. Castleford were also reeling from a whopping 60-6 loss at home to Leeds Rhinos the previous week, so many would have forgiven you for thinking that this game could have been a foregone conclusion in favour of the Wire. Of course, one of the reasons that fans love the Challenge Cup so much is the unpredictability of it.

Current Cas boss Powell is set to depart the Mend-A-Hose Jungle come the end of this campaign, along with players Peter Mata’utia and Oliver Holmes, to join Warrington. That didn’t stop any of them from focusing on the job at hand in the present though, as the Tigers blitzed their ‘team-to-be’ and raced into a 19-0 half time lead, before holding their own and getting the job done in the second period. 

All in all, it has been a bumpy road to the final for both teams, but the pair will look to put all of that behind them and focus on the 80 minutes in store at Wembley on Saturday in the showcase that is the final. With Cas’ league form falling off in recent weeks to put it politely, it is looking all the more likely they will miss out on the top six and the play-offs come the end of the season, meaning that this game offers their only chance of success in 2021.

It’s been a far from ideal farewell season for Powell, Mata’utia or Holmes, but this game provides an opportunity to leave the club with major success. As for Saints, the prospect of a league and cup double is still very much alive although Catalans Dragons have looked increasingly impressive week-by-week in Super League.

Saints will be 100% focused on winning their first Challenge Cup in over a decade and will come into this game as the firm favourites, however much that counts towards anything is yet to be seen though and as we have seen previously, being the favourites does not guarantee success in any way, shape or form. One thing is for sure, this year’s Challenge Cup final is certainly going to be an intriguing one for various reasons.

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