There is nothing quite like the brutal reality of professional sport to remind us that not every fairy tale is due a happy ending. As the full-time hooter sounded at Old Trafford and Sam Tomkins’s magnificent rugby league career drew to a close, he could do nothing but sink to his knees. Wigan’s players embraced in celebration with one exception: Tomkins’s lifelong friend and former teammate, the Warriors captain, Liam Farrell.
Farrell’s first thought, despite leading Wigan to a first Grand Final success in five years, was to console his friend. It was a moment that epitomised the spirit games such as these are so often played in but even Tomkins, in the final match of a stellar playing career, would admit his side were beaten by the better team in the one game that matters more than the rest.
The talk all week had been about how Tomkins could script the fairy-tale finale to his career with victory against his boyhood club but the one thing so many of us had ignored is that the competition’s benchmark club this year were the one team standing in their way. And if there is one thing Wigan Warriors do better than most, it is win when the chips are down and the stakes are at their highest.
“It feels good and it’s been a long time coming,” the victorious coach, Matt Peet, said. “Myself and Rads [the chief executive, Kris Radlinski] started talking about what we wanted to achieve over the next few years a couple of years ago, and we’re building. We’ve got a special group of players, a special club from top to bottom, and I’m proud of everyone in the environment.” With impressive recruitment already secure for next season, it is likely the new champions will start next season as favourites too.
Super League title number six, and a first since 2018, was certainly hard-earned for the Warriors but ultimately thoroughly deserved. They defended with courage and undeniable effort throughout but, in truth, crucial errors at crucial moments were decisive. The fact Catalans had two players sin-binned, Adam Keighran and Tom Davies, either side of half-time meant they had to play a quarter of the final a man down and the amount of defending they had to do in those passages took its toll.
At half-time, despite Keighran’s sin-binning, the Grand Final was in the balance. Harry Smith’s penalty was cancelled out by one from Keighran to leave it level at 2-2 and you wondered if Catalans, and perhaps Tomkins, could produce one last great half when it mattered most. However, they were ultimately outplayed by a Wigan side who upped the pressure considerably.
Davies’s sin-binning for a professional foul on Liam Marshall left Catalans light again, and Wigan took advantage when a break from the outstanding Jake Wardle was eventually finished by Marshall. It proved to be the only try of the final. Catalans fought gamely to try to respond but another penalty from Smith made it 10-2 and left the Dragons with too much work to do. Their race had been run, and the fatigue was brutally evident as they attacked without any real threat.
“When you lose a Grand Final and you concede one try, you’ve got half the game right in defence,” the beaten coach, Steve McNamara, said. “We couldn’t get it going on in attack. I’m very proud of the team all season, but bitterly disappointed. I couldn’t ask for any more. I’ve got no regrets, the team will have no regrets. We didn’t play well enough and we knew we’d have to be at the top of our game tonight, and we weren’t.”
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Tomkins had hoped to lead Catalans to an historic first league title in his final game as a professional, with much pre-match talk about what victory could do for rugby league in France. However, they must wait for at least another year for their maiden title and Super League must wait for only its fifth ever champions, with the last new winners of the Grand Final all the way back in 2004, when Leeds Rhinos lifted the title on the first of eight occasions.
Tomkins was able to raise himself from the floor and head for the Stretford End, where almost 20,000 Wigan supporters afforded him the standing ovation his career deserved. But this wasn’t his night. This was Wigan’s: and few could argue with that.
