A derby is an important sporting event, nothing to do with location.

A local derby is an important sporting event contested by teams from the same area.

That's according to the Oxford dictionary. Loads of people get it wrong.

We should pan all of them again. Only Salford got the better of us in the league.

Widnes, i'm taking my doctors mask this time too.

My 1st has to be Wigan
2nd Saints, due to the sell out crowd
3rd & 4th are more difficult to choose, Widnes is closer but I always enjoy our games with Salford.

If it WAS geography, it's Widnes as i'll illustrate

shortest route (walking)

Widnes 6.9 miles
Leigh 8.3 miles
St Helens 8.5 miles
Wigan 11.8 miles
Salford 13.6 miles

How do you define closest rival though? if you're in a relegation/league winners battle with any of the above then that game becomes more important, so then derby games are transient.

I'd just go with what Mark says.

There's only one derby in RL an that's the Hull FC vs KR derby. You have rivals and that's that, end of!

Friday 3rd August. Saints v Wire

Nah. You're wrong. There's loads more derbies. End of.

cas v wakey is bigger.

Saints away. Wigan as a close second.

New stadium, big crowd, Saints wanting to get back to winning ways against Warrington and then we beat them.

Think all eight games should be good, but I'm looking forward to Saints away the most out of them all.

Lord Derby gave his name to only two sporting events. The Horse race we know as 'The derby' and also 'Wigan v Saints'. They were the original sporting Derby games. Research it if you don't believe me.

Widnes..To see if we can beat the score we put on Swinton last season..

i've just googled "what is a derby match"

you know what came up?
=#FF0000OI LESS OF IT

hth

The reason we know it as such is because that's it's name, wally. (Or more correctly Derby Stakes)

I can see you making the inverted commas sign with your fingers as you typed that. What is this? Your second year of university now? You truly are a walking justification for tuition fees.

'Wigan v Saints' WTF.

So that's not it's name then? It's name is the Derby Stakes, and it is known as 'The Derby'... Wally.


How can someone make a sign with their fingers and type at the same time? Are they typing with their face or something?!

If you're going to try and be patronising, at least say something that makes sense and refrain from contradicting yourself in your first sentence!

I take it you got turned down from university then...

how can you get turned down from university!!!!!!!!!!!!!! down by maybe!

Because that's where the rejection comes 'from'. Both are fine.

Does it really matter?

Back on topic

Wigan, it just means more to me, growing up in a predominately pie area.

Widnes will only mean more after a few seasons when they figure out the good from the bad and recruit top notch which i'm sure they will with S'OC's money, that's at the very least 3 years away.

Salford, pah

Saints always love the games just not usually the result.

No, but I did get turned down a few times whilst at university.

Help, I dind't know whether to put while or whilst, please enlighten me.

Back on topic, it's got to be Widnes for me. It was the ''''''''Derby'''''''' games between us and them in the 80's that got me hooked on the sport. Passion from the fans that you don't see now, which I don't necessarily think is a bad thing, as it often went too far. Also looking forward to seeing the physio come on after every tackle to bandage the knees of the players.

I don't believe you and I have researched it. there are a number of theories about how it came about, none of which involve Wigan RL. It may also surprise you that there is also proof that the world is not round and you won't fall off the edge of it if you venture past Orrell.

So let me get this straight, you're calling someone names for a reason that contradicts itself as well as having a pop at his uni education in a snobbish manner, despite the fact that you apparently went to uni and are the one making little sense?

Maybe you should try and justify your own uni fees first before pointing out others flaws? You can start by answering your own question



But back on topic!

As an outsider, I'd go for Wire vs Widnes, purely because Saints vs Wigan is THE derby over there, and Wire vs any of them two will always be seen as a nice sideshow. Widnes/Wire need to build on their own rivalry and try not let it be diluted with other potential main rivals. That's what makes Wigan/Saints and FC/KR so special. They hate each other more than anyone else. Wire vs Wigan/Saints won't be as special for that reason but Wire/Widnes could be.

Typing .......typing.......typing.........makes nob head gesture to monitor......typing typing......typing.......


Cracked it ........ not simultaneously but I did do it "while" I was typing.

Anyway Wigan is the correct answer never has Widnes been a big match.... it got intense for a couple of years in their jiffy years.... the superleague era games with saints were predictable defeats with the odd classic thrown in. Before that they were another local team....

If you have ever been to a Locker cup game and still think anything other than Wigan is our biggest game then you are quite clearly wrong.

I think a lot of people say its Widnes because Wigans biggest game is Saints, and they feel it makes us bit inferior if our biggest game is another clubs second biggest game. Despite that Wigan will fill the away end this season and Widnes won't. So let that be guide to the importance of the fixture.

Is it just down to the hatred of the fans ???

Hull fc and Hull kr win hands down then ..... but the game itself over the years as largely been an ordinary fixture, or never happened due to being in different divisions. In the 80s i remember one derby being such a nasty event with massive crowd trouble that it made the front page of the papers.

Maybe I'm showing some ignorance of their fixture but Wires Wigan have had some classics over the years, the maine road semi. World war 3, Russell smiths stinker in 94. The Premiership semi at central park 86, to name a few high profile and trophy defining games.

No other club has been involved with so many of our greatest victories, and our most heartbreaking defeats than Wigan. If that statement blows smoke up their backsides so what....I'm not about to make a game against Widnes into something it isn't.

Got to be Wigan for me.

Not at the same time then...


To me I think it's a bit similar to how Hull looked at Leeds when Rovers weren't around in SL. They were our biggest rivals, we were both doing fairly well and challenging at the top, but Leeds never saw us as their main rivals and it just never seemed as special as the games against Rovers when they came up.

Of course, a year after Rovers came up, our *rses well out and we finished bottom 3 for two years, and we haven't beaten Leeds again since so they may have contributed!