The 1992

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 ...

match was contested by the

1991–92 Rugby Football League season The 1991–92 Rugby Football League season was the 97th season of professional rugby league football in Britain. Fourteen teams competed from August, 1991 until May, 1992 for the Stones Bitter Championship, Premiership Trophy and Silk Cut Challe ...

champions

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

and the

1992 NSWRL season The 1992 New South Wales Rugby League Premiership season was the eighty-fifth season of professional rugby league football in Australia. Sixteen teams competed for the J.J. Giltinan Shield during the season which culminated in a grand final for ...

's premiers, the

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Football Club Ltd., commonly referred to as the Broncos, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos play in Australia's elite com ...

. The match took place on Friday night, 30 October in England, during the

1992–93 Rugby Football League season The 1992–93 Rugby Football League season was the 98th ever season of professional rugby league football in Britain. Sixteen teams competed from August, 1992 until May, 1993 for the Stones Bitter Championship, Premiership Trophy and Silk Cut Cha ...

. It was also played less than a week after the 1992 Rugby League World Cup Final (from which many players on both sides were backing up). A crowd of 17,764 turned out at Central Park, Wigan for the match which was refereed by

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's Dennis Hale, the same referee as for the World Cup final one week earlier. The game was broadcast throughout Great Britain by

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and was shown on delay in Australia by the

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

. Commentary was provided by Sky's regular rugby league commentary team of Eddie Hemmings and former

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hooker

Mike Stephenson Michael Stephenson (born 27 January 1947) is an English rugby league commentator and former player. Stephenson was born in Dewsbury, West Riding of Yorkshire. He is commonly known as "Stevo", the nickname that he is known by in rugby league ...

along with Nine's former

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

test halfback Peter Sterling.

Background

Wigan

Brisbane Broncos

Teams

Match details

Brisbane's

Alan Cann Alan Cann is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s. A Queensland Maroons, Queensland State of Origin series, State of Origin representative Rugby league positions#Forwards, forward, he played club foo ...

missed the match due to injury. Early in the match a chaotic all-in brawl erupted, with Brisbane's Andrew Gee seen as the instigator. Wigan later opened the scoring by kicking a penalty given for an obstruction by Kerrod Walters close to the Broncos' try-line. However a knock-on later by Wigan in their in-goal area gave Brisbane a

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feed in an attacking position and Julian O'Neill capitalised, fending off one defender and avoiding another in his run for the line to score the first try of the match which was then converted by Terry Matterson. Another try, scored by Kerrod Walters as a result of good support play from the Broncos, brought the score to 2-10 at half time. Early in the second half another all-in brawl started, Andrew Gee again involved in the initial flareup. The Broncos scored first in the second half with Steve Renouf finding Michael Hancock out wide close to the Wigan try-line. However this was followed by a miraculous try from the home team. Around the halfway line, the Wigan hooker, Martin Dermott, chipped the ball over the top of the Broncos defenders and Shaun Edwards ran through to field it. Without missing a beat Edwards then sent a grubbing kick down past a complacent Julian O'Neill at fullback and won the race for it, with Wigan's goal-kicker Frano Botica adding the extra two. Later in the game Renouf again combined with Hancock out wide, throwing a looping pass over the Wigan defence to send the Broncos' number two over once more. The successful conversion attempt by Matterson, who was named man-of-the-match, left the final score at 22-8. The Brisbane Broncos' victory saw the first time that Australian premiers had won the

on British soil. It was also only the second time that an Australian team had won at all, the last time being in 1976, in the first ever match of its kind.

References

External links

1992 World Club Challenge at superleague.co.uk
{{coord, 53.550417, -2.625833, name=Central Park (Wigan), display=title World Club Challenge Brisbane Broncos matches Wigan Warriors matches