The St Helens R.F.C. – Wigan Warriors rivalry is a historic local rivalry between the

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 ...

clubs St Helens and the

Wigan Warriors The Wigan Warriors is an English professional rugby league club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester. The club competes in the Super League, the top tier of the British rugby league system. Formed in 1872, the club is a founding member of the Ru ...

, based in North West England. The rivalry is born out of relative proximity of the two towns, but as two of the most successful clubs in British rugby it has become a marquee event in the calendar. Initially at least one fixture was played on Boxing Day annually and was known as the Boxing Day Derby, later the second fixture settled on Good Friday. Following the leagues decision to move the competition from winter to the summer the Good Friday Derby remains the one traditionally fixed game in the calendar.

History

St Helens and Wigan are two of the original twenty-two northern rugby clubs that broke away from the

Rugby Football Union The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the Sports governing body, national governing body for rugby union in England. It was founded in 1871, and was the sport's international governing body prior to the formation of what is now known as World Rugby ...

to form the

Northern Union The Rugby Football League (RFL) is the governing body for rugby league in England. Founded in 1895 as the Northern Rugby Football Union following 22 clubs resigning from the Rugby Football Union, it changed its name in 1922 to the Rugby Footb ...

in 1895, which gave birth to the modern day sport of

. Prior to this, the clubs first met on 5 December 1874 in a fixture at St Helens with the match ending in a draw. The two clubs first encounter in the Northern Union was in the

first First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

season of the new code. The fixture was played at St Helens'

Knowsley Road Knowsley Road is a former football stadium in Eccleston, St Helens, Merseyside. It was the home ground of St. Helens from 1890 until its closure in 2010. St Helens Town FC played their home fixtures at Knowsley Road from 2002 until 2010. For ...

ground and ended in a 0-0 draw. The clubs have since faced each other over 300 times in all competitions, and the rivalry has grown to become rugby league's biggest derby encounter. Over the years the two clubs have become very successful. Wigan are the most successful club in British rugby league, having won 24 league titles and 21

Challenge Cup The Rugby Football League Challenge Cup, commonly known just as the Challenge Cup is a Single-elimination tournament, knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, it is the world's old ...

s. St Helens are the second most successful team with 17 league titles and 13 Challenge Cup wins. In rugby league grand finals, the clubs have contested five league championship matches with St Helens claiming the title at Wigan's expense on four occasions (

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

) and

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

to Wigan's one grand final success over Saints in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Traditional dates

In keeping with tradition, derby fixtures within the RFL have usually been played on

Boxing Day Boxing Day, also called as Offering Day is a holiday celebrated after Christmas Day, occurring on the second day of Christmastide (26 December). Boxing Day was once a day to donate gifts to those in need, but it has evolved to become a part ...

and

Good Friday Good Friday, also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday, or Friday of the Passion of the Lord, is a solemn Christian holy day commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary (Golgotha). It is observed during ...

. The first Boxing Day fixture between Wigan and St Helens took place in 1905. Since the move to summer seasons in 1996, Boxing Day games have no longer been competitive and has seen events like

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

's and

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

Festive Challenge The Festive Challenge is an annual friendly rugby match played between Leeds Rhinos and Wakefield Trinity that is played on Boxing Day. History Background Matches played on Boxing Day were a regular part of rugby league season in Great Britain ...

emerge in keeping with the Boxing Day tradition. The

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

however has kept to the tradition of having derbies on Good Friday with St Helens and Wigan not competing a Good Friday Derby on only three occasions since the summer switch.

Head to Head

:''Statistics correct as of 05/05/2025.''https://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/head2head/st-helens-vs-wigan-warriors/all/summary.html In all Rugby League competitions, competitive and uncompetitive:

Matches by competition

Meetings in major finals

* 1953–54 Lancashire Cup Final: St Helens 16–8 Wigan * 1960–61 Challenge Cup Final: St Helens 12–6 Wigan * 1965–66 Challenge Cup Final: St Helens 21–2 Wigan * 1970–71 NFRL Division One Championship Final: St Helens 16–12 Wigan * 1984–85 Lancashire Cup Final: St Helens 26–18 Wigan * 1988–89 Challenge Cup Final: Wigan 27–0 St Helens *

1990–91 Challenge Cup The 1991 Challenge Cup was the 90th staging of rugby league's oldest knockout competition, the Challenge Cup. Known as the Silk Cut Challenge Cup for sponsorship reasons, the final was contested by Wigan Warriors, Wigan and St Helens R.F.C., St. ...

Final: Wigan 13–8 St Helens * 1991–92 Premiership Final: Wigan 48–16 St Helens *1992–93 Charity Shield: St Helens 17–0 Wigan *

1992–93 Lancashire Cup The 1992–93 Lancashire Cup was the 80th and last occasion on which the Lancashire Cup competition was held. Wigan won the trophy by beating St Helens by the score of 5-4 in the final. Background The failure of London Crusaders to enter, ...

Final: Wigan 5–4 St Helens * 1992–93 Premiership Final: St Helens 10–4 Wigan * 1995–96 League Cup Final: Wigan 48–16 St Helens * 1996 Premiership Final: Wigan 25–16 St Helens * 1997 Premiership Final: Wigan 32–20 St Helens * 2000 Super League Grand Final: St Helens 29–16 Wigan * 2002 Challenge Cup Final: Wigan 21–12 St Helens * 2004 Challenge Cup Final: St Helens 32–16 Wigan *

2010 Super League Grand Final The 2010 Super League Grand Final was the 13th official Grand Final and conclusive and championship-deciding game of Super League XV. Held on Saturday 2 October 2010, at Manchester's Old Trafford stadium, the match was contested by English clubs ...

: Wigan 22–10 St Helens * 2014 Super League Grand Final: St Helens 14–6 Wigan *

2020 Super League Grand Final The 2020 Super League Grand Final was the 23rd official Grand Final and championship-deciding game of Super League XXV. The game was won 8–4 by St Helens over their local rivals Wigan Warriors. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was the first S ...

: St Helens 8–4 Wigan

Collective Honours

:''As of the 2024 season''

Notes

References

;General
http://wigan.rlfans.com/readarticle.php?article_id=1824
;Inline {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Helens R.F.C.-Wigan Warriors rivalry St Helens R.F.C. Wigan Warriors Rugby league rivalries Sports rivalries in the United Kingdom