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Challenge Cup Final
Wembley Stadium
28th August 2010
Devastated
The first thing to say is that Wembley is awesome. What a spectacular stadium! They may have bust the bank building it but it is brilliant. This is a Stadium where is should be simple to get motivated to play and which deserves to host sensational events. On saturday the Rhinos didn't live up to the hype/stadium/reputation.
With Peacock and Burgess sidelined Bluey decided that the two unlucky ones would be Donald (expected) and Lauiti'iti (must have not been 100% fit) with Clarkson in the starting thirteen and Ablett, back from suspension, on the bench. The atmosphere was electric as the Wolves got the game underway kicking straight to Buderus who knocked-on. It wasn't the best of starts. From the scrum the Wolves went blind side and superb Leeds defence pushed the ball into touch. That was more like it.
Leeds marched the ball downfield and on four minutes it looked like Bailey had crashed over for Leeds opener and his first try for over three years, but the replay clearly showed that he hadn't grounded it. Four repeat sets for Leeds, camped on the Wolves line, but the awesome Wolves defence set out their stall and stopped us breaking the line. For the opening ten minutes we dominated, playing entirely within the Warrington half, but to no avail.
Murdered Us
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On thirteen the Wolves got their first posession in the Leeds half and on the last tackle a Briers pinpoint kick to the left Saw Atkins beat Delaney to the ball and collect for a simple score. Westwood missed the extras but against the run of play we were behind.
Four minutes later and a Briers 40-20 set up the second try. Four tackles out from the scrum and Hicks evaded four attempted tackles to score . Westwood failed again with the kick so we were still in touch at 0-8.
The Wolves defence was resolute and the Rhinos attack ineffectual at finding a way through.
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Five minutes before the interval and the Wolves got a bit of luck.
A Leeds kick on the last took a couple of ricochets before Riley appeared to pick it up in an offside position. A tackle later and Atkins went between two Leeds tacklers to run forty metres and score under the sticks. Westwood kicked his first conversion of the afternoon and the lads trudged off to get a Bluey half-time lecture at 0-14.
We could still get this back, but it would require something special against a resolute Wolves defence. We'd come back from worse than this, we still has some belief but the atmosphere was very muted.
Right at the start of the second half Rob Burrow put in a try saving tackle and on fifty-two Delaney broke the Wolves whitewash but again failed to get the ball on the turf. We started to look like we were panicking.
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With eighteen minutes left we'd still not broken the Wolves line and then Briers hammered the fatal blow. Another kick to the corner picked out Hicks who took the ball under little pressure from Hall and grounded. Westwood kicked the extras for 0-20.
On sixty-six we got our first and only try of the game. A wide pass from McGuire found Smith who came in field and crashed over. Sinfield kicked, but we all knew it was too little, and too late.
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Only Leeds Try
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On seventy-two the Wolves kept the ball alive on the last tackle and amd Hicks crossed for his hat-trick off a short pass. Westwood missed the extras but he didn't two minutes later when Louis Anderson got a try to seal a great afternoon for the Wolves.
I don't know whether we were awestruck, over confident or just plain rubbish. One thing was for sure, the Wolves were awesome in defence and inventive in attack, both qualities that we were seriously lacking.
The Wolves deserved their win, and we'll have to wait yet another year to regain the famous old trophy. That's seven Challenge Cup finals for me now and just one win. How I hate this competition.
Match Facts
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No.
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Player
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T
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G
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DG
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No.
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Player
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T
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G
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DG
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1
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Webb
|
|
|
|
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1
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Mathers
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|
|
|
|
28
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Smith
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1
|
|
|
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5
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Hicks
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3
|
|
|
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3
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Delaney
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|
|
|
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3
|
King
|
|
|
|
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4
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Senior
|
|
|
|
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23
|
Atkins
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2
|
|
|
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5
|
Hall
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|
|
|
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2
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Riley
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|
|
|
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7
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Burrow
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|
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|
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6
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Briers
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|
|
|
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6
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McGuire
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|
|
|
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9
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Monaghan
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|
|
|
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8
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Leuluai
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|
|
|
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8
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Morley
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|
|
|
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9
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Buderus
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|
|
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15
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Clarke
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|
|
|
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16
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Bailey
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|
|
|
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10
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Carvell
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|
|
|
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11
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Jones-Buchanan
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|
|
|
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11
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Anderson L.
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1
|
|
|
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27
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Clarkson
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|
|
|
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12
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Westwood
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3
|
|
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13
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Sinfield
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1
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|
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13
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Harrison
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|
|
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|
|
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|
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|
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|
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14
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Diskin
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|
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|
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27
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Anderson V.
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|
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15
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Eastwood
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|
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26
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Solomona
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|
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17
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Kirke
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|
|
|
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16
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Woods
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|
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|
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18
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Ablett
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|
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14
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Higham
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|
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Kick Off:
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14:30
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Half-Time:
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00-14
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Referee:
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Richard Silverwood
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Crowd:
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85,217
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