St Helens R.F.C.–Wigan Warriors rivalry

The Good Friday Derby
	St Helens vs Wigan Warriors during the Super League XIV Semi-finals
Other names	Wigan Saints Derby, The Derby, The Original Derby
Locale	North West England
Teams	St. Helens ; Wigan Warriors
First meeting	16 November 1895
Latest meeting	2020 Super League Grand Final
Statistics
Meetings total	376
Most wins	Wigan (215)
All-time series (RFL-1 and SL only)	257
Regular season series	243
Largest victory	Wigan 65–12 St Helens (SL era only)[1]

The rugby league tie between St Helens and Wigan Warriors is a local derby with the two clubs being fierce rivals, both on and off the pitch. The sporting term of "Derby" or "Derbies" originates from this sporting fixture.[2]

History

The Totally Wicked Stadium (left) and the DW Stadium (right) are the homes of The Saints and The Warriors.

St Helens and Wigan are two of the original twenty-two northern rugby clubs that broke away from the Rugby Football Union to form the Northern Union in 1895, which gave birth to the modern day sport of rugby league.[3]

The two clubs first met in the very first season of the new code and drew the first ever encounter, at St Helens' Knowsley Road ground, nil points apiece.[4]

Over the years the two clubs have become very successful. Wigan are the most successful club in British rugby league, having won 22 league championships and 19 Challenge Cup titles. St Helens are the second most successful team with 15 league titles and 12 Challenge Cup wins. In all competitions, the clubs have played each other over 300 times and the rivalry has grown to become rugby league's biggest derby encounter with fans of each club passionately disliking their derby rivals. Although, unlike in football rivalries, crowd trouble at the games is rare.

Both sides would traditionally meet on Boxing Day, but with the start of the summer era in British rugby league in 1996, the two clubs have played each other every Good Friday, leading to these encounters being known as the Good Friday derby.[5] Wigan enjoyed an 8-game winning streak between 2010 and 2017 (in 2010, winning the last Derby at Knowsley Road) in the Good Friday clash against Saints, until St Helens ran out 21-18 winners in the 2018 edition. Before then, you'd have to go back to 2008 for the last time Saints beat Wigan on Good Friday as the 2009 clash which Saints won was played on Maundy Thursday due to a clash with Wigan Athletic.

In finals rugby league, the clubs have contested four league championship matches with St Helens claiming the title at Wigan's expense on three occasions (1971, 2000 and 2014) to Wigan's one grand final success over Saints in 2010.

In total, Wigan have defeated St Helens in competitive rugby league 183 times with St Helens winning 123 of the clubs' encounters. There has also been 17 draws in matches between the clubs.

The Original Sporting Derby

The term "Derby" applied to only two sporting events originally. The 19th Earl of Derby, confirmed that his family had lent their name to two sporting events - the horserace at Epsom and the Rugby League Fixtures between Wigan and St Helens. With the town of Wigan at one end of their Knowsley estate and the town of St Helens at the other, he named the fixture "The Derby". This fixture then became widely known as "The Derby" with other games between local rivals in various sports adopting the term.

Head to Head

Statistics correct as of 29/1/21[lower-alpha 1]

In all competitions, competitive and uncompetitive:

Played	St Helens	Drawn	Wigan
376[lower-alpha 2]	141	18	215

Matches by competition

Competition	Played
League (Inc. RFL-1 and SL)	257[lower-alpha 3]
Challenge Cup	28
League Cup	2
Charity Shield	1
Premiership	11
Lancashire League	17
Lancashire Cup	17
Yorkshire Cup	4
BBC2 Floodlit Trophy	6
Wartime Emergency League	14
Lancashire Wartime Emergency League	4
Friendlies	15

Meetings in major finals

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
1988–89 Challenge Cup Final: Wigan 27–0 St Helens
1990–91 Challenge Cup 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 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: Wigan 22–10 St Helens
2014 Super League Grand Final: St Helens 14–6 Wigan
2020 Super League Grand Final: St Helens 8–4 Wigan

Collective Honours

St Helens		Honour	Wigan Warriors
Rank	No.	Honour	No.	Rank
2nd	16	League	22	1st
3rd	10	Challenge Cup	13	1st
3rd	4	Premiership	6	1st[lower-alpha 4]
6th	1	League Cup	8	1st
3rd	1	Charity Shield	4	1st
6th	2	World Club Challenge	4	2nd
2nd	8	Lancashire League	18	1st
2nd	11	Lancashire Cup	21	1st
2nd[lower-alpha 5]	2	BBC2 Floodlit Trophy	1	5th
Both teams have also received the BBC Sports Team of the Year Award once.

Notes

Source for matches played up to 27/9/19.[6]
Two of these fixtures were abandoned
Regular Season: 243; Playoffs: 14
Join first with Widnes Vikings
Joint second with Salford Red Devils and Leigh Centurions.

References

General

http://wigan.rlfans.com/readarticle.php?article_id=1824

Inline

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[7] Source for matches played up to 27/9/19.[6]

[8] Two of these fixtures were abandoned

[9] Regular Season: 243; Playoffs: 14

[10] Join first with Widnes Vikings

[11] Joint second with Salford Red Devils and Leigh Centurions.

[1] ttps://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/sport/13328461.saints-v-wigan-previous-meetings/#:~:text=St%20Helens%2010%2C%20Wigan%2028,and%202004%20play-offs.

[2] ttps://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/21930849

[3] ttp://www.rugbyfootballhistory.com/Schism.html

[4] ttp://wigan.rlfans.com/readarticle.php?article_id=1848

[5] ttps://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/32133457

[6] ttp://wigan.rlfans.com/readarticle.php?article_id=1824

St Helens
Est. 1873 in St Helens, England
The Club	History Records Honours Players International representatives Coaches Hall of Fame
Home grounds	City Ground Knowsley Road (1890-2010) Halton Stadium (2011) Totally Wicked Stadium (2012-Present)
Hall of Fame	Jack Arkwright Frank Barrow Billy Benyon Tommy Bishop Frank Carlton Eric Chisnall Harry Cook Kel Coslett Keiron Cunningham Bob Dagnall Bernard Dwyer Alf Ellaby Les Fairclough Ray French Doug Greenall Jeff Heaton Neil Holding Dick Huddart Les Jones Chris Joynt Vince Karalius Len Killeen Barry Ledger Steve Llewellyn Sean Long Paul Loughlin John Mantle Tommy Martyn Roy Mathias Stan McCormick Glyn Moses Alex Murphy Paul Newlove George Nicholls George Parsons Geoff Pimblett Harry Pinner Alan Prescott Austin Rhodes Wilf Smith Jim Stott Jim Sullivan Abe Terry Phil Veivers Tom van Vollenhoven John Warlow Cliff Watson
League	Super League
World Club Challenge (2)	2001 2007
Championships (13)	1931–32 1952–53 1958–59 1965–66 1969–70 1970–71 1974–75 1996 1999 2000 2002 2006 2014
Challenge Cup (12)	1955–56 1960–61 1965–66 1971–72 1975–76 1996 1997 2001 2004 2006 2007 2008
Other honours	4—time Premiership Champions 1—time Western Division Champions 1—time Regal Trophy Champions 2—time BBC2 Floodlit Trophy Champions 11—time Lancashire County Cup Champions 11—time Lancashire League Champions 1—time Charity Shield Champions BBC Sports Personality Team of the Year Award (2006)
Seasons (120)	1895–96 1896–97 1897–98 1898–99 1899–00 1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20
Culture	NRFU Founder Super League Founding Member Rivalry with Wigan Testimonials
Affiliation	Rugby Football League (1895) St Helens Ladies

Wigan Warriors
Est. 1872 in Wigan, England
The Club	History Players Seasons Internationals Hall of Fame
Home grounds	Folly Field (1872–1877; 1879–1886) Prescott Street (1877–1879; 1886–1901) Springfield Park (1901–1902) Central Park (1902–1999) DW Stadium (1999–present)
League	Rugby Football Union Rugby Football League Super League
Titles	RFL/Super League Championship: 1908–09 1921–22 1925–26 1933–34 1945–46 1946–47 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1995–96 1998 2010 2013 2016 World Club Challenge (4): 1987 1991 1994 2017 Challenge Cup: 1924 1929 1944 1948 1951 1958 1959 1965 1985 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 2002 2011 2013
Seasons	1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Culture	NRFU Founder Super League Founding Member Rivalry with St Helens
Affiliation	Rugby Football League (1895) Wigan Warriors Women