The 1989 World Club Challenge (also known as the Foster's World Club Challenge due to sponsorship by brewers, Foster's) was the third ever and first official

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. 1989's NSWRL season premiers, the

Canberra Raiders The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby ...

travelled to England to play 1988–89 RFL champions,

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 census had a population of 61,464. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the northern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form th ...

Background

Widnes

Widnes came into the World Club Challenge having won two straight Stones Bitter Premierships. Coach

Doug Laughton Charles Douglas Laughton (born 13 May 1944) is an English former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, and coached in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. He played at representative level for Great Britain (cap ...

's team had won many admirers throughout England for their free-flowing, attacking style of rugby. At this time player poaching from rugby union was at a level not seen in decades, and the Chemics benefited from a board flush with cash and a coach with a keen eye for talent. Three members of their famed back division all came from the amateur code.

Alan Tait Alan Victor Tait (born 2 November 1964) is a former Scottish dual-code rugby footballer, and now coach. He is a Defence Coach at the Super 6 side Southern Knights. He was previously head coach at Newcastle Falcons and a former rugby union ...

started in union for Scotland but had grown up around league as his father played for Workington Town in the Borders. Jonathan Davies cited a need to provide for a young family and heavy pressure as Wales five-eighth as his motivation for accepting a then-record £230,000 signing fee. Finally

Martin Offiah Martin Nwokocha Offiah MBE ( (''original pronunciation''), (''commonly used'')); born 29 December 1965) is an English former professional rugby league and rugby union footballer who played in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Offiah was inducted i ...

desired to prove doubters wrong, whether they be Southern union power-brokers put off by his unapologetic blackness or St. Helens scouts who passed him over, believing he was "an uncoordinated clown". Combining with home-grown talents like Andy Currier, the Hulme brothers and Tony Myler, the Chemics scored an eye-popping 726 points in the 1988-89 league, winning the title over Wigan by three points.

Canberra Raiders

The 1989 NSWRL season was the 8th in the history of Australian club the

. Coached by

Tim Sheens Tim Sheens (born 30 October 1950) is an Australian professional rugby league football coach and former player. Head Coach of the Australia national team between 2009 and 2015, he has also been the head coach of National Rugby League (NRL) clubs ...

and captained by Australian international centre

Mal Meninga Malcolm Norman Meninga (; born 8 July 1960) is an Australian professional rugby league coach who is the head coach of the Australian national team and a former professional rugby league footballer. Meninga is widely regarded as one of the fin ...

, the Raiders finished the minor rounds in 4th spot. They then won through to their second ever Grand Final (after playing in the 1987 game) where they made history by not only being the first team to win the premiership from 4th spot or lower after defeating Balmain in the Grand Final, but also by becoming the first non-

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

team to win the premiership in its history dating back to 1908.

Teams

Details

The match was played on Wednesday, 4 October at Old Trafford, Manchester. A crowd of 30,786 saw an all-action game of two halves, with a

-inspired Canberra opening up a 12-0 lead by playing a brand of rugby that BBC commentator

Ray French Raymond James French, MBE (born 23 December 1939) is an English former rugby league and rugby union footballer who played in the 1950s and 1960s. French played at international level in both codes. He won four caps for England in rugby union ...

described as "like basketball". However Widnes' offload game would bring them back into the match, with tries by Offiah and Paul Hulme both coming as a result of good late passes to make it 12-8 at the interval. The match turned in the second half when Jonathan Davies was clothes-lined across the chin by

Laurie Daley Laurie William Daley AM (born 20 October 1969), also known by the nicknames of "Lozza" and "Loz", is an Australian professional rugby league football coach and a former player who played as a and in the 1980s and 1990s. He represented Au ...

in the act of scoring a try: Daley could call himself lucky to only be given a sin-bin by the French referee. Widnes would consolidate the man-advantage by crossing the Stretford End try-line twice courtesy of Offiah and Eyres, adding a Darren Wright try as insurance while Steve Walters would got a valedictory four-pointer for the Australians. David Hulme was named man-of-the-match.

References

External links

1989 World Club Challenge at rugbyleagueproject.com1989 World Club Challenge at superleague.co.uk1989 World Club Challenge at rugby.widnes.tv
{{1989 in rugby league World Club Challenge Canberra Raiders matches Widnes Vikings matches