AS hordes of Warrington Wolves fans prepare to head south, they will be hoping their latest trip to Wembley Stadium proves as fruitful as the last.
Saturday’s clash with neighbours Wigan Warriors under the arch will be their first Challenge Cup Final since defying the odds to stun a heavily-favoured St Helens side in 2019.
Parallels can be drawn in parts – while Wire are certainly not being as roundly written off now as they were then, Wigan will certainly start as favourites and a Warrington victory would be considered a shock.
It would send the Sam Burgess era immediately into the history books, just as a Wembley win had done for one of his predecessors.
The 2019 win was masterminded by then head coach Steve Price – while adversity and predictions of an embarrassment surrounded them, a masterplan was being cooked up internally.
And for this very special feature, Price spoke exclusively to the Warrington Guardian to lift the lid on how that memorable game was won…
Learning lessons
Of course, this was the second time in as many years that Price had led The Wire to Wembley.
In 2018 – his first season as head coach – they were the ones wearing the favourites tag against Catalans Dragons, but it ended up weighing heavy.
A nightmare start saw them fall two scores behind inside the first 10 minutes and they never really recovered, falling to a 20-14 defeat as Catalans became the first non-British club to lift the trophy.
I felt like I didn’t get the night before right. It was a little bit too relaxed,” Price admitted.
“That was a big lesson learnt for us.
“We didn’t honour the fundamentals of rugby league that day. We turned over too much possession and when we did, our attitude to defend wasn’t where it needed to be.
“I’ve got to take responsibility for that.
“What I’d learnt from big occasions in the NRL was finding solutions to take pressure off the players, but our relaxed approach showed in our start.
“I put my hand up there and we wanted to make sure that if our opportunity came around again, it wouldn’t happen again.”
Defying adversity
Thankfully, they only had to wait 12 months for the opportunity to put it right but this time, all the signs pointed to more disappointment.
The only time Wire had won in the six weeks leading up to the final was in the semis against Hull FC – and things were about to get worse.
Half-back Blake Austin, who had spent the first half of the campaign tormenting Super League defences, picked up an ankle injury in a defeat to Catalans in Perpignan three weeks before the big day.
That set about weeks of “will he, won’t he” and while he gave his star man every chance, Price knew he had to start planning without him.
“He was very close – maybe another one or two weeks shy of playing,” he said, with Kevin Brown also sidelined having torn his Achilles in pre-season.
“We didn’t have much back-up in the halves after that.
“Stef Ratchford had torn his pec and only had one or two games back before that final.
“He pulled through – he turned around a torn pec in 12 weeks, which was quite remarkable – but obviously Austo couldn’t play.
“It was about 11 or 12 days before the game that things started to come together. We had to keep a few things under wraps as we wanted to give Austo every chance leading up to the game, but it was too big a risk.
“As a coaching group, we started to plant the seed about what we wanted to do.
“We’d had a couple of wobbles in Super League, but we knew we’d done the work.
“Our training was very consistent and with the balance of our squad, I knew we could defend well to give ourselves that opportunity.
“We just had Dec Patton playing on the ball – he was roaming around both sides and was our number one kicker.
“Wherever we ended up, he just had license to go wherever and put is in a position to try and protect him.”
Replacing the irreplaceable
Even if Austin was available, Wire’s task was a daunting one against a red-hot St Helens side that was being tipped for an unprecedented Treble under Price’s childhood friend Justin Holbrook.
At the time, they were in the midst of one of the most dominant Super League campaigns in history – they ended up finishing 16 points clear of second-placed Wigan Warriors before beating Salford Red Devils at Old Trafford to lift the title.
Predictions of a record Wembley scoreline poured in on social media from fans on both sides, but Wire had a plan up their sleeve.
The big question was who would replace Austin and when the team sheets dropped, it was Ben Currie – a man to whom half-back was not alien having played there in a World Cup with Ireland – named to partner Patton.
Once the action got underway, however, it was clear the mantle had fallen upon co-captain Jack Hughes – the epitome of a team player whose contributions were always more appreciated in the dressing room than in the stands.
“The reason for that was to combat Jonny Lomax and Mark Percival on their left,” Price explained.
“With Zeb Taia over there too, they were very potent.
“Jack’s got a really good understanding of defensive movement. What he sees is quite clear to him, and he’s a big lad.
“Him and Ben Murdoch-Masila defended outstandingly and came up with a number of try-saving plays.
“Getting Hughesey over there was big for us, and Dec did a remarkable job with his kicking.
“When you sit down and go through offensive structures with Hughesey, he’s a guy who can pick things up quite easily.
“Benny Murds inserted a lot of inside pressure for Hughesy, but that whole right edge connected really strongly.”
Seizing the moment
The plan was concocted and imparted to the players, and now it was up to the men in primrose and blue to deliver it.
It could – and perhaps should – have been tested early on when referee Robert Hicks was adamant St Helens’ Morgan Knowles had failed to touch the ball down properly in pursuit of a Theo Fages grubber kick, when video replays showed it at the very least warranted further examination from the video referee.
Nevertheless, Wire pressed on in the knowledge that when their moment came, they had to seize it.
And seize it they did – two tries in eight minutes put the game firmly in their grasp as Joe Philbin, who had scored the match-sealing try in the semi-final, rumbled through a gap behind the ruck to power over before the stand-in stand-off executed a planned play to perfection to send Murdoch-Masila crashing through.
“Every player in our 17 had to be a nine out of 10, and they delivered even more than that,” beamed Price as the memories came flooding back.
“When we had the opportunities in good-ball, we had to ice them and then defend our way to victory.
“We had to wait for our time and once we’d generated a bit of ruck speed, we got that quick play-the-ball from Jace Clark to set up Philbs then Benny Murds got on an out line on our right edge.
“From a defensive point of view, we had to be so strong.
“We felt like if we could keep them to two tries, we’d give ourselves a great opportunity to win the game so keeping them to one was a remarkable achievement.
“Their forward pack was rolling a lot of teams quite fluently so Jonny Lomax, Theo Fages and Lachlan Coote were able to play off some really quick play-the-balls.
“We had to put fatigue into their big boys in Alex Walmsley, Morgan Knowles and Matty Lees and we had to go after James Roby.
“He’s one of the greatest players Super League has ever produced and we had a huge amount of respect for him, but he had to make tackles that game.
“We had to make their big men work in the heat. We played with that extra running forward in Jack Hughes and we felt like we tortured that middle, which we had to.
“They tended to come up aggressively on the edges, so Briersey came up with a play around a little slot opening up around Lomax and Percival that we could get Murds through, so that was all planned.
“We had to control the ball and the boys did that and replicated the game plan to a tee.”
A game-changer that was no fluke
With a 12-0 lead to protect, the game was in Wire’s hands but far from over.
They knew St Helens would come hard at them, and so it proved – but one particular effort epitomised the Warrington effort.
Having been found in space on the right wing, Tommy Makinson took flight for one of his signature acrobatic finishes while Bryson Goodwin flew in to make a last-ditch but surely futile attempt to stop him.
The St Helens end cheered, but Goodwin was immediately mobbed by teammates and Makinson looked crestfallen.
Sure enough, replays showed the New Zealander had effected Makinson enough for him to lose a grip of the ball.
“Tommy’s been doing that for a long time – he’s a fantastic player and I’ve got huge admiration for him,” said Price.
“Bryson Goodwin and a lot of the outside backs practiced that regularly at training – if you are above the hips, you go for the furthest arm or elbow and it worked to a tee that day.
“That’s a credit to Bry as he worked hard on it and spoke about it pre-game. Fortunately, it came off that day.
“It was pretty calm at half time – everything we wanted to implement was coming off but we knew we were up against a quality team.
“We knew that the first 15 minutes after half time was going to be a really critical stage.
“They poked a couple of openings but I felt if we held our nerve, controlled field position and stayed in the grind, we could defend our way to victory.”
The moment of truth
Saints did eventually find a way through as Fages stepped over to score, but the usually-reliable Coote failed with the conversion which meant, crucially, Wire stayed two scores ahead.
Through a combination of their own failings and a sterling Warrington effort, that was a close as they got and when the irrepressible Daryl Clark poached a trademark try from dummy-half, the primrose and blue-decked East End of Wembley erupted in glee.
It was job done, even if Price did not allow himself to believe it until the very end.
“When you’re playing such a quality side, it’s never over until minute 80,” he said.
“I was still nervous at the back end but when Daz scored, it was going to be hard for them to score three tries in the time left.
“Even then, you know they’re still a great team and you’re just waiting for that final hooter to go.”
Pride in the class of 2024
Price left Warrington at the end of the 2021 season in order to return to Australia with his young family.
Soon afterwards, he was back in his old role as an assistant coach at Cronulla Sharks, where he remains under head coach Craig Fitzgibbon.
With the team joint-top of the NRL table, it is a role he is certainly enjoying but he still finds time for keep an eye on his old team – and he will be doing on cup final day.
“It’s been awesome – I love working with Fitzy and I’ve got a really strong relationship with him,” he said.
“He’s got the team and the club in really good shape. There’s a good vibe and the culture’s getting stronger.
“The players are playing some outstanding footy at present and it’s shown in our form of late.
“I had a great time at Warrington and I loved every minute of it. I loved the club, the fans and where we lived – it was a great experience.
“I’m still an avid watcher. I still keep in contact with a number of the staff, the CEO in Karl Fitzpatrick and people like Mike Lomax – they’re wonderful people.
“I’ll be watching the final and cheering hard for them. We play Brisbane that day and after that, I’ll be watching Sammy and the boys.
“I want to wish them all the very best. I’m really proud watching them and I hope they bring it back to Warrington.”
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