The 2000 World Club Challenge was contested by 1999 NRL season premiers, the

Melbourne Storm The Melbourne Storm is a rugby league football club based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia that participates in the National Rugby League (NRL). The club plays its home games at AAMI Park, and wears a purple and navy blu ...

and 1999's Super League IV champions, St. Helens. The match was played on 22 January at JJB Stadium, Wigan before a crowd of 13,394. The Melbourne Storm defeated St Helens 44 - 6. This was the first World Club Challenge since

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

and the

Super League war The Super League war was a commercial competition between the Australian Rugby League (ARL) and the Australian Super League to establish pre-eminence in professional rugby league competition in Australia and New Zealand in the mid-1990s. Sup ...

Background

St Helens

The 1999 Super League Grand Final was the conclusive and championship-deciding game of the Super League IV season. The match was played between English clubs St. Helens and

Bradford Bulls The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, and compete in the Championship, the second tier of British rugby league. The club have won the League Championship six times, the Challenge Cup f ...

on Saturday 9 October 1999, at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and is the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,197, it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after W ...

, Manchester, UK.

Melbourne Storm

The 1999 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the 1999 NRL season. It was contested by the competition's two newest clubs: the

, competing in only its second year (having finished the regular season in 3rd place); and the St George Illawarra Dragons, in their first year as a joint-venture club (having finished the regular season in 6th place), after both sides eliminated the rest of the top eight during the finals. A new rugby league world record crowd of 107,999 was at

Stadium Australia Stadium Australia, currently known as Accor Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium located in the suburb of Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The stadium, which is sometimes referred to as Sydney Ol ...

for the game. The attendance, which saw 67,142 more people attend than had done so for the 1998 NRL Grand Final at the Sydney Football Stadium, broke the record attendance for a Grand Final, eclipsing the previous record of 78,065 set in

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. After trailing 0-14 at half time, the Melbourne Storm defeated the St George Illawarra Dragons 20-18.

Venue

With the game set to be played in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, the

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League (RFL) is the governing body for rugby league in England. Founded in 1895 as the Northern Rugby Football Union following 22 clubs resigning from the Rugby Football Union, it changed its name in 1922 to the Rugby Footb ...

chose

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

's home venue, the JJB Stadium which could hold 25,333, as the host venue in preference to St Helens' home ground of

Knowsley Road Knowsley Road is a former football stadium in Eccleston, St Helens, Merseyside. It was the home ground of St. Helens from 1890 until its closure in 2010. St Helens Town FC played their home fixtures at Knowsley Road from 2002 until 2010. For ...

which could only hold 17,500.

Teams

Both teams were missing players following their 1999 victories. Anthony Sullivan, Vila Matautia and

Keiron Cunningham Keiron Cunningham (born 28 October 1976) is a professional rugby league coach and former player. A Great Britain national rugby league team, Great Britain and Wales national rugby league team, Wales international representative , he played his ...

were notable absences for St Helens through injury, with Melbourne missing their retired former captain

Glenn Lazarus Glenn Patrick Lazarus (born 11 December 1965) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer, and a former Australian Senator. An Australian international and New South Wales State of Origin representative , Lazarus won premi ...

, and the injured Matt Geyer, Rodney Howe and Ben Roarty. The match was played with four interchange players with a maximum of eight substitutions after agreement was reached between the two clubs. At the time the NRL competition had unlimited substitutions with four players on the interchange bench.

Match summary

Melbourne started strongly with halfback Brett Kimmorley sending Aaron Moule into a gap in the St Helens defence to score a try in the fifth minute. The NRL premiers extending their lead to 10–0 in just the 11th minute following a try to Wayne Evans. St Helens lost centre Kevin Iro to a thigh injury during the first half, while captain Chris Joynt was feeling the effects of the flu and did not return after half time. The hosts first points coming via a penalty goal to Sean Long after a high tackle by Scott Hill. The Storm would dominate the latter stages of the first half, scoring tries through

Marcus Bai Marcus "George" Bai (born 11 October 1972) is a Papua New Guinean former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. An international representative er, he represented Papua New Guinea on numerous occasions including ...

in the 30th minute, and Hill just before the break to take a 20–2 lead. Storm forwards Danny Williams and Dane Morgan were forced to deny allegations of eye-gouging raised by Saints stand-off Tommy Martyn stemming from an incident in the 48th minute. Martyn lodged a formal complaint with referee Stuart Cummings, with both players later not charged by match officials. Melbourne led by man of the match Brett Kimmorley ripped apart St Helens after the break, scoring a further try through Dane Morgan in his first game for the club, with Hill scoring his second try for the night, backing up some brilliant passing from Stephen Kearney and

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. The fullback would score the first of his two tries soon after. New Zealand international Sean Hoppe scored a late try for St Helens eight minutes from full time, but it was mere consolation, with Melbourne scoring their eighth try a few minutes later to take the final score to 44–6, the widest margin in the history of the previous editions of the World Club Challenge. Despite the final margin, St Helens coach Ellery Hanley claimed after the match that Melbourne were "not a better side than us at all, although the scoreline says they were. We just didn't defend and stop their offloads." Melbourne coach Chris Anderson was quoted that he "expected a hard game. It was a new style of football for St Helens and they struggled."

Scoreboard

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:World Club Challenge

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

Melbourne Storm matches St Helens R.F.C. matches 2000 in English rugby league 2000 in Australian rugby league 2000 rugby league matches