World Club Challenge
The World Club Challenge is an annual rugby league competition between the winners of the Australian National Rugby League and the British Super League, for the de facto club world championship of the sport.
Super League sides have won the c ...
2000 NRL season
The 2000 NRL season was the 93rd season of professional rugby league football in Australia and the third to be run by the National Rugby League. Fourteen teams competed from February until August for the NRL Premiership, culminating in the 200 ...
premiers, the
Brisbane Broncos
The Brisbane Broncos are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Red Hill, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos compete in the National Rugby League (NRL) and play their home games at ...
.2001 World Club Challenge at superleague.co.uk /ref> The Broncos made the trip to England to play St Helens before the start of the 2001 NRL and Super League seasons and were beaten by two late
drop goal
A drop goal, field goal, or dropped goal is a method of scoring points in rugby union and rugby league and also, rarely, in American football and Canadian football.
A drop goal is scored by drop kicking the ball (dropping the ball and then kick ...
s (known as a field goal in Australia, but not to be confused with the archaic
field goal
A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. Consequently, ...
Wigan Warriors
The Wigan Warriors is an English professional rugby league club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester.
The club competes in the Super League, the top tier of the British rugby league system. Formed in 1872, the club is a founding member of the Ru ...
who had finished the regular season in 1s place, and
St Helens R.F.C.
St Helens R.F.C., commonly known as Saints, is a professional rugby league club in St Helens, Merseyside, England. Founded in 1873, the club is one of the oldest members of the Rugby Football League, and one of the most successful clubs in its ...
who had finished in 2nd place, after both teams had played their way through the finals series. St Helens had played in the previous World Club Challenge, suffering a comprehensive defeat at the hands of 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 ...
.
Brisbane Broncos
The 2000 NRL grand final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the
2000 NRL season
The 2000 NRL season was the 93rd season of professional rugby league football in Australia and the third to be run by the National Rugby League. Fourteen teams competed from February until August for the NRL Premiership, culminating in the 200 ...
. It was contested by the
Brisbane Broncos
The Brisbane Broncos are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Red Hill, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos compete in the National Rugby League (NRL) and play their home games at ...
, who had finished the regular season in 1st place, and the
Sydney Roosters
Eastern Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club, known as the Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Eastern Suburbs. The club competes in the National Rugby Lea ...
, who had finished in 2nd place, after both teams played their way through the finals series. Prior to the previous World Club Challenge, the Broncos had contested the three preceding it, winning twice.
Teams
Match details
The match was played in wintery conditions on the night of Friday the 26th of January at
Reebok Stadium
The Toughsheet Community Stadium is a Association football, football stadium in Horwich near Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. It is the home ground of Bolton Wanderers F.C., Bolton Wanderers Football Club, with an all-seated capacity of 28, ...
in
Bolton, England
Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and villages that form the wider ...
before a crowd of 16,041. The Broncos players wore black armbands in memory of the club's co-founder Paul "Porky" Morgan who had died from a heart attack the previous day.
First half
The first try of the match was scored by the Broncos from close to the Saints' try-line when Shaun Berrigan, playing at
five-eighth
Five-eighth or stand-off is one of the positions in a rugby league football team. Wearing jersey number 6, this player is one of the two half backs in a team, partnering the . Sometimes known as the pivot or second receiver, in a traditional a ...
, burrowed over from dummy half. St. Helens answered with a try from their loose forward, Paul Sculthorpe. This was followed by the Brisbane lock, Phillip Lee scoring at the other end. The half-time score was 6 - 12 in favour of the Broncos.
Second half
Brisbane were again the first to score in the second half through Brad Meyers, giving the visitors a good lead. But a converted try from Saints' scrum-half, Sean Long put the home team back in it at 18 - 12. The scores were then levelled when St. Helens centre, Paul Newlove ran around Wendell Sailor and dashed downfield, passing back inside to his captain, Chris Joynt to score. In the final minutes of the match the Saints managed to wear down the clock without conceding any points as try-scorers Sculthorpe and Long kicked a drop/field goal each, leaving the score at the final siren at 20 - 18.
2001
The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...