The 2018 Super League Grand Final was the 21st official Grand Final and championship-deciding game of

Super League XXIII The 2018 Super League season, known as the Betfred Super League XXIII for sponsor reasons, was the 23rd season of the Super League and 124th season of rugby league in Britain. It was won by Wigan Warriors, who were crowned champions after beati ...

. It was held 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 Wemb ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

on 13 October 2018, kick off 18.00. The final was contested by

Warrington Wolves The Warrington Wolves are a professional rugby league club based in Warrington, England, that competes in the Super League. They play rugby at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, having moved there from Wilderspool in 2004. Founded as Warrington Z ...

and

Wigan Warriors The Wigan Warriors are a professional rugby league club in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the Super League. Formed in 1872 as Wigan Football Club, Wigan was a founding member of the Rugby Football League, Northern Rugby ...

, the third time the two sides have met in the Grand Final with previous meetings in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

and 2016 being won by Wigan.

Background

Route to the Final

Wigan Warriors

Wigan finished 2nd in regular season and seven wins out of seven in the Super 8's saw them secure 2nd place in the table. A 14–0 victory over third placed

Castleford Tigers The Castleford Tigers are a professional rugby league club in Castleford, West Yorkshire, England, that compete in the Super League, the top-level professional rugby league club competition in the Northern Hemisphere. The club have competed i ...

in the semi-final earned Wigan a place in their 10th Grand Final.

Warrington Wolves

Warrington finished 4th to earn an away trip to League Leaders Shield winners St. Helens in the semi-finals. Warrington Wolves won 18–13 with a late try by

Tom Lineham Tom Lineham (born 21 September 1991), is an English professional rugby league footballer who plays as a er for Wakefield Trinity in the Betfred Super League and the England Knights at international level. He played for the York City Knights in ...

. Warrington Wolves contested their 4th Grand Final.

Match details

First Half Warrington opened the scoring in a cagey first half on 13 minutes, through

Josh Charnley Joshua Charnley (born 26 June 1991) is an English international professional rugby league footballer who plays on the for the Leigh Leopards in the Super League. He previously played for the Warrington Wolves and Wigan Warriors, with whom he ...

, against his former club, as he took in

Stefan Ratchford Stefan Guy Ratchford (born 19 July 1988) is an English rugby league footballer who plays as a for the Warrington Wolves ( Heritage No. 1097) in the Betfred Super League and the England Knights and England international at international level. ...

's looping pass before sliding over in the corner. The touchline conversion was missed by

Tyrone Roberts Tyrone Roberts (born 1 June 1991) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays for the Burleigh Bears in the Queensland Cup as a or . He previously played for the Brisbane Broncos, Newcastle Knights and the Gold Coast Titan ...

. (0–4) Wigan leveled the score on 25 minutes through

Dominic Manfredi Dominic Manfredi (born 1 October 1993) is an English former professional rugby league footballer who played on the for the Wigan Warriors in the Betfred Super League. He has spent time on loan from Wigan Warriors, Wigan at the South Wales Sco ...

, marking his first Grand Final appearance since 2015, (missing the 2016 Final due to injury) with a try in the corner, through great work by

Oliver Gildart Oliver Patrick Gildart (born 6 August 1996) is an English professional rugby league footballer who plays as a for the Dolphins in the Australian National Rugby League. He has previously played for the Wests Tigers and Sydney Roosters in the ...

, as he jinked through the line, before giving it to Manfredi out wide to touch down in the corner. (4-4).

Sam Tomkins Sam Tomkins (born 23 March 1989) is an English professional rugby league footballer who plays as a and occasional for the Catalans Dragons in the Betfred Super League and England at international level. He is the two time and current and r ...

missed the conversion, and the score would remain level. On 31 minutes, a George Williams kick into open space, rolled into the in goal area, and Tom Davies managed to beat Josh Charnley to the ball, and score in the corner. The video referee awarded the try after reviewing the footage, and agreed Davies had got a hand on the ball. Again, Tomkins missed the extras and it would remain 8-4 until half time. Second Half The second half would see Warrington come close early on, as

looked to go over in the corner, but a mob of Wigan defenders led by Manfredi and Tomkins forced him into touch. With time running out, Wigan won a penalty on 70 minutes and despite being close to the halfway line, they elected to kick it. Tomkins again missed the kick and the score remained 8–4. On 77 minutes, Manfredi would seal the win for Wigan as he would take in Sam Tomkins' inch perfect pass, before diving over in the corner, to seal the win. Tomkins again missing the conversion, (12-4). Toby King almost got what would have been a consolation score for Warrington in the last minute of the game, but the video ref determined that he'd dropped the ball in his attempt at scoring and the score would remain 12–4. The win for

secured a record 22nd

Rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

title while Warrington's 63 years wait to be crowned champions goes on. Post-Match This match was Shaun Wane's last game as Wigan coach before going to

Scotland Rugby Union The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU; gd, Aonadh Rugbaidh na h-Alba) is the governing body of rugby union in Scotland. Styled as Scottish Rugby, it is the second oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873. The SRU oversees the national league ...

, after 7 seasons as head coach of Wigan. It was also the last game before Sam Tomkins left for Catalans, and John Bateman and Ryan Sutton for Canberra. Wigan would win their 5th Grand Final and 22nd Championship overall, in their 10th appearance, evening up their win–loss record in Grand Finals, their last three wins coming against Warrington, whilst Warrington are still waiting to end their long title drought, stretching back to 1955.

References

{{2018 in rugby league Super League Grand Finals

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") 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. Sy ...

Super League Grand Final The Super League Grand Final is the championship-deciding game of rugby league's Super League competition. It is played between two teams who have qualified via the Super League Play-Off series. The winning team receives the Super League Trop ...

Wigan Warriors matches Warrington Wolves matches