The 2006
World Club Challenge was a
Rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...
match held on Friday, 3 February 2006, at
Galpharm Stadium, Huddersfield, UK. The game was contested by
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 ...
and
Wests Tigers
The Wests Tigers is an Australian professional rugby league football team, based in the Inner West of Sydney and South Western Sydney. The Tigers have competed in the National Rugby League (NRL) since being formed at the end of the 1999 N ...
.
Qualification
Bradford Bulls
Bradford Bulls qualified for the Challenge after being crowned the 2005 Super League champions, defeating their local rivals
Leeds Rhinos
The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club play their home games at Headingley Rugby Stadium, AMT Headingley Rugby Stadium and compete in the Super League, the top tier of British rugby lea ...
15–6 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 ...
. This
Grand Final
Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Synonymous with a championship game in North Ameri ...
win avenged a defeat to the same team in the title decider the year before.
Wests Tigers
Wests Tigers clinched the 2005 National Rugby League title in a 30–16 defeat of
North Queensland Cowboys
The North Queensland Cowboys is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, the largest city in North Queensland. They compete in Australia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL).
Sinc ...
to earn a place in the World Club Challenge. The Tigers had reached the Grand Final for the first time since their formation five years earlier following a merger of
Balmain Tigers
The Balmain Tigers (also known as the Sydney Tigers from 1995 to 1996) are a rugby league club based in the inner-western Sydney suburb of Balmain, New South Wales, Balmain. They were a founding member of the New South Wales Rugby League and on ...
and
Western Suburbs.
Teams
The Tigers were without six of their
2005 NRL grand final
The 2005 NRL Grand Final was the conclusive and premiership-deciding game of the National Rugby League's 2005 NRL season, 2005 Telstra Premiership season. It was played on the night of Sunday, 2 October at Sydney's Telstra Stadium between the W ...
-winning team: star stand-off half back
Benji Marshall
Benjamin Quentin Marshall (born 25 February 1985) is a New Zealand professional rugby league coach and former player who is the head coach of the Wests Tigers in the NRL.
He played at or for the Wests Tigers in two separate spells, St. G ...
had undergone shoulder surgery in the off season; winger
Pat Richards and forward
Mark O'Neill had signed to play with other clubs, and
Dene Halatau,
Todd Payten and
Shane Elford were also absent.
Match details
Man of the Match
Stuart Fielden of the
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 ...
was awarded man of the match.
External links
2006 World club Challenge at bradfordbulls.co.uk2006 World Club Challenge at superleague.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:World Club Challenge
2006
2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification.
Events
January
* January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute.
* January 12 – A stampede during t ...
Bradford Bulls matches
Wests Tigers matches
2006 in Australian rugby league
2006 in English rugby league
2006 rugby league matches