Wish you had been giving it out, I had a 20 quid free bet on him at 66/1.

What a dreadful match. One of the worst games that I've seen and it is a shame that it was the Challenge Cup final.

Both teams weren't great, but Hull couldn't get past tackle 2 on a lot of their sets and that said it all really and decided the game for Wigan. For their dominance, I'm not sure why they only had 6/8 points next to their name for the majority of the match? That should be a bit of a concern for Wigan in terms of the rest of the season, I think Wigan looked very beatable and I don't think Hull are going to get a better chance than they had today.

I'm not sure how they even came up with a MoM? Matty Smith got it for his kicking game, but apart from that he didn't do too much else.

hull did loads of defensive work and we was hammering them in the tackle as well i'm not surprised they was shot after the 60 minute, everybody seems to forget that wigan's key players have been out injured for large parts of the season and i don't doubt wanes taking the foot of the throttle till play off time.

Everybody hasn't forgotten anything. It's just that everybody (bar some Wigan fans) knows that isn't true.

Another game in wet conditions and another knockonathon. Same story, one common denominator.

I've said it before and ill say it again, it seems there are real problems in wet conditions with the current ball and the Grand Final, which should be the biggest and most exciting game of the season is sure to be another disappointment.

It must be true because wigan say it is

On one of the other threads on Cherry and White that dim Mash Butty character is blaming the crap new balls on Saints, that must be true too.

Say what you want, and I’m not saying for one minute that it was a classic, it wasn’t, but be honest if you just changed the name from Wigan to St Helens on that game you’d be blaming the weather, the ball, recent injuries and the poor oppositions performance too, but when all’s said and done you too would just say “we don’t care, we won” and I couldn't blame you one bit.

This is a zero sum thread for saints fans. No matter the score or quality, the result is Wigan won and we were out long ago.

Your correct , as a Wigan fan a win is a win and you got a trophy for it. If it were Saints I'd be happy to just win the cup with a performance being a bonus. The thing is were not Wigan fans here so we wanted a good game to watch



There were some worrying signs though as a Wigan fan you should be a little concerned about , Pieman on Cherry and White mentioned it(being a bit one dimensional), even with the weather being so poor and the balls being problematic (which for me should just get fixed !!) the amount of possession Wigan had they should have been out of sight by half-time.

One of the most dour finals I have ever seen! the game was so slow, from play the ball's to scrums, and then the advantage play has become a farce, it again slows the game down.

Wigan just held on to the ball a little more, giving them more possession, the kicking in our game is making union look good these days, especially when it is on the third tackle? I thought Hull looked better with the ball, if they had not dropped it, at last they looked good passing.

The attendance was a farce, I presume they count into that figure the 17,500 Club Wembley Debenture Seats sold for every event at the stadium, take them off the figure the whole middle tier was virtually empty, I would say looking around the stadium more 63,000!

Not a great day for the game, it has been billed up that much.

The thing is Wigan played pretty expansive rugby in the first part of the season, they came one dimensional when Shirley and Tomkins missed a few games and became "too structured" because of it.
If Wigan played to early season form they would have posted 50 points on Hull. Have Wigan put all there eggs in one basket in winning at wembley, because they look a level below Huddersfield and Warrington at the moment.

Unless you were down there you couldn't realise just how bad the conditions were. It was heaving down. Wigan played the better wet weather rugby, just as Widnes did the other week v Wire.

BOTH sides defended really well, it's a side of the game that the vast majority of spectators seem to ignore, Harrison Hansen was superb in that facet of his game, how would have got the Lance Todd for me.

Anyway that's Challenge Cup #19 for Wigan, the third time we've nilled a club at Wembley and now become the FIRST town to hold the F.A. Cup and Challenge Cup in the same year.

Not bad for a little town eh!!!

Of course if Saints won I wouldn't care the quality of the game; what a stupid thing to suggest.

I'd be aware of how terrible the game was, though, and not look to be defensive about it like the Wigin lot are.

I normally like to watch the CC final though even if we dont make it, I've been to a few as a neutral too. That game was terrible and I'm glad I didn't go watch it. Cant deny I'd have liked a Hull win but I'd have settled for a good game of Rugby

Its hard to have a good game in those conditions, questions have to be asked about how this ball performs in wet conditions, as we have our showpiece event for summer rugby in October!

As I said elsewhere, the Wire v Widnes game was played in similar conditions and there was a similar amount of spilled ball. Just something else wouldn't you have thought that a stadium costing around £750 million would have a retractable roof, not to mention decent road access.

Impressed with some of Hull's young players, they really seem to have got that right.

Not the classic everyone expected but when I saw the weather forecast I saw it coming. I think most people would accept that the conditions did play a part. It's been cropping up for a while now about how poorly the Rhino ball's handle in the rain, And yesterday did nothing but pour down, non stop all day. The semi final had a lot of handling errors in poor conditions... but both teams managed to score and make a game of it, unfortunately (for the neutral atleast).. that didn't happen yesterday. If the young hull fullback had scored from that break instead of being tackled the game would have turned on it's head and a very tense end to the game would have ensued, Instead we got Hull knocking on every set whilst trying to throw it about a bit.

Ultimately Wigan didn't set the world on fire but they didn't need to. Instead of forcing the pass and losing possesion when tackled players just went to ground and kept hold. Hull where very poor with the ball in hand at times and constantly gifted us field position and whilst they defended well and shut our usual plays down with a fast line defence the team who played to the conditions better won.

wembley is a terrible location and the stadium isnt a patch on cardiff

they could have just closed the roof though ha

They could if the roof actually closed.

Ha ha ha.
No they couldn't.
Read my post on page 7 and No1 Saints above.

Agree again


If they were going to use the same location then they should have built a huge car park a few miles away with a rail link into Wembley, if not then somewhere close to the M25 with good road/rail access.

I believe the roof does close but it takes about an hour and I read that the roof can't be operated once the stadium is in use. In use! Useless more like. What a waste of money.

It doesn't close fully.