The 2023 World Club Challenge (known as the 2023

Betfred Betfred is a bookmaker based in the United Kingdom, founded by Fred Done.Pronounced to rhyme with "bone". It was first established as a single betting shop in Ordsall, Salford, in 1967. Its turnover in 2004 was reported to be more than £3.5 bil ...

World Club Challenge for sponsorship reasons) was the 29th staging of the

World Club Challenge The World Club Challenge is an annual rugby league competition between the winners of the Australasian National Rugby League (NRL) and the European Super League, for the de facto club world championship of the sport. The first such match was pl ...

. The match was contested by the

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

winners

Penrith Panthers The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith that competes in the NRL. The team is based west of the centre of Sydney, at the foot of the Blue Mountains. Penri ...

, and

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of ...

champions St Helens.

Background

The challenge was played for the first time since 2020 as the global COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of the intervening fixtures.

Route to final

Penrith Panthers

Penrith defeated

Parramatta Eels The Parramatta Eels are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta that competes in the National Rugby League. The Parramatta District Rugby League Football Club was formed in 1947, and thei ...

in the 2022 NRL Grand Final, which qualified them for the 2023 World Club Challenge.

St Helens

St Helens and the

Leeds Rhinos The Leeds Rhinos are a professional rugby league club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The club was formed in 1870 as Leeds St John's and play in the Super League, the top tier of English rugby league. They have played home matches at Head ...

competed in the 2022 Super League Grand Final, for a record fifth time at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after We ...

, which saw St Helens win 24–12.

Pre-match

Team selection

Following the departures of

Viliame Kikau Viliame Hekmatzadah "Bill" Kikau (born 5 April 1995) is a Fijian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a forward for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in the NRL, and Fiji at international level. He previously played for the ...

Apisai Koroisau Apisai Koroisau (born 7 November 1992) is a Fiji international rugby league footballer who plays as a for the Wests Tigers in the NRL. A triple NRL premiership winner with the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Penrith Panthers, he previously ...

, and Charlie Staines to other clubs, Penrith fielded a team with 11 members of their 2022 grand final team. 2022

Clive Churchill Medal The Clive Churchill Medal is the award given to the player judged to be Player of the match#Rugby football, man-of-the-match in the National Rugby League's annual Grand Final. The award was created to honour Clive Churchill, one of the greatest ...

list and regular fullback

Dylan Edwards Dylan Edwards (born 10 January 1996) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a for the Penrith Panthers in the NRL with whom he won the 2021 and 2022 NRL premierships. Background Edwards was born in Albury, New Sou ...

missed the match through injury, with

Liam Martin Liam Martin (born 5 March 1997) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a forward and for the Penrith Panthers in the National Rugby League and Australia at international level. He won both the 2021 and the 2022 N ...

and Scott Sorensen also absent through injury concerns.

Officiating

Australian referee

Ashley Klein Ashley Klein is an Australian rugby league referee. Klein refereed in England, beginning in the Rugby League Conference. His first professional game was Workington Town v Featherstone Rovers on 8 September 2002. His first Super League gam ...

was selected to referee his third World Club Challenge, having previously been in charge of the

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...

and

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

fixtures.

Match

Summary

The match was originally scheduled to kick off at 18:00

AEDT Australia uses three main time zones: Australian Western Standard Time (AWST; UTC+08:00), Australian Central Standard Time (ACST; UTC+09:30), and Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST; UTC+10:00). Time is regulated by the individual state gov ...

but due to the extreme heat and humidity forecast for that time, the kick off time was put back to 18:50 AEDT. The NRL also announced that the game will be played in four quarters of 20 minutes each, with each team allowed an additional interchange player and two extra interchanges allowed during the match. Saints looked to have won the match with two minutes remaining, but

Brian To'o Brian To'o (born 18 August 1998) is a Samoa international rugby league footballer who plays as a er for the Penrith Panthers in the NRL. He won both the 2021 and the 2022 NRL Grand Finals with the Panthers. He has represented the NSW Blues ...

scored a try to bring Penrith to within two points, before

Nathan Cleary Nathan Cleary (born 14 November 1997) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a the Penrith Panthers in the NRL and Australia at international level. He won both the 2021 and the 2022 NRL Grand Finals with the Pa ...

kicked the conversion, to send the match to

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only ...

. St Helens eventually won the match 13–12, after a knock on from Penrith, gave Saints possession near the halfway line, before

Lewis Dodd Lewis Dodd (born 27 January 2002) is an English professional rugby league footballer who plays as a for St Helens in the Betfred Super League. Background Dodd was born in Widnes, England. He is of Welsh descent. Playing career He signed for ...

kicked the winning

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 kickin ...

Details

Statistics

Penrith Panthers: * Most runs: 26 –

Stephen Crichton Stephen Crichton (born 22 September 2000) is a Samoan professional rugby league footballer who plays as a for the Penrith Panthers in the NRL and Samoa at international level. He won both the 2021 and the 2022 NRL Grand Finals with the Pant ...

* Most running metres: 214 –

* Most line breaks: 1 –

Taylan May Taylan 'Tiny' May (born 19 August 2001) is a Samoa international rugby league footballer who plays as a er for the Penrith Panthers in the NRL. Background He played junior rugby league for the Minchinbury Jets Playing career 2021 In round 21 ...

* Most tackles: 51 –

Zac Hosking Zac Hosking (born 26 February 1997) is an Australian rugby league footballer who plays as a forward for the Penrith Panthers in the NRL. He is the son of former NRL player David Hosking. He previously played for the Brisbane Broncos in t ...

* Most missed tackles: 5 –

Mitch Kenny Mitchell Kenny (born 15 January 1998) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a for the Penrith Panthers in the NRL. He is a NRL premiership winning player of 2022 and 2023. Early life Born in Sydney, New South Wale ...

* Most errors: 3 –

St Helens: * Most runs: 21 – **

Will Hopoate William Hopoate (born 9 May 1992), also known as Viliami in Tongan, also known by the nickname of "Hoppa", is a Tonga international rugby league footballer who plays as a and on the for the St Helens in the Super League. He played for ...

Alex Walmsley Alex Walmsley (born 10 April 1990) is an English professional rugby league footballer who plays as a for St Helens in the Betfred Super League, and England and Great Britain at international level. He previously played for the Batley Bulldogs ...

* Most running metres: 181 –

* Most line breaks: 1 – **

Konrad Hurrell Konileti "Konrad" Hurrell (born 5 August 1991) is a Tongan professional rugby league footballer who plays as a for St Helens in the Super League and Tonga at international level. He previously played for the New Zealand Warriors and the Gol ...

Mark Percival Mark Percival (born 29 April 1994) is an English professional rugby league footballer who plays as a for St Helens in the Super League and England at international level. He made his début for Saints in 2013, winning the Super League Grand ...

Curtis Sironen Curtis Sironen (born 31 July 1993) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a forward for St Helens in the Super League. He previously played for the Wests Tigers and Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles in the National Ru ...

* Most tackles: 50 – **

James Roby James William Mark Roby (born 22 November 1985) is an English professional rugby league footballer who captains and plays as a for St Helens in the Super League, and for Great Britain and England at international level. He has played his ent ...

Morgan Knowles Morgan Knowles (born 5 November 1996) is a professional rugby league footballer who plays as a or for St Helens in the Super League. He has played for both Wales & England at international level. Background Knowles was born in Barrow-in-Fur ...

* Most missed tackles: 7 –

* Most errors: 3 –

Jack Welsby Jack Welsby (born 17 March 2001) is an English professional rugby league footballer who plays as a or er for St Helens in the Super League and England at international level. Background Welsby was born in Wigan, Lancashire. Playing for Shevin ...

Post-match

Broadcasting

The match was broadcast in Australia on subscription television channel

Fox League Fox League is an Australian subscription television channel dedicated to screening rugby league (both domestic and international) matches and related programming. It is owned by Fox Sports Pty Limited and is available throughout Australia on Fo ...

and streamed via

Kayo Sports Kayo Sports is an over-the-top video streaming subscription service available in Australia, owned by Streamotion ( a wholly owned subsidiary of Foxtel). The service offers sports live and on demand from Fox Sports, ESPN, beIN Sports, and Raci ...

. In the United Kingdom,

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

and

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It h ...

showed the match live.

References

{{World Club Challenge 2023 in Australian rugby league 2023 in English rugby league World Club Challenge Penrith Panthers matches St Helens R.F.C. matches

Rugby league in Sydney