Grand Final 2020 stats preview
26 Nov 2020
St Helens and Wigan Warriors have met in three Super League Grand Finals.
Saints lead 2-1 on the biggest stage - but the fourth meeting between these two rivals could be the best yet.
They have one win apiece as far as 2020 form goes and players from both sides recognise this as a 50/50 game.
But what do the statistics say ahead of the biggest night of the season on Friday?
St Helens' Grand Final wins over Wigan Warriors came in 2000 and 2014, while Warriors emerged victorious in 2010.
Chris Joynt was the inspiration for Saints in 2000. He scored two tries and created another as the Red Vee won 29-16 to secure back-to-back titles.
A decade later and it would be Warriors celebrating at Old Trafford in one of the more comfortable Grand Final victories.
In front of a crowd of 71,526, Warriors raced into a 16-0 lead inside the opening quarter through Martin Gleeson’s brace and a Darrell Goulding try. Saints did to get back into the game, but Warriors were too strong and triumphed 22-10.
The 2014 final featured one of the most controversial moments in the competition’s history. Warriors prop, Ben Flower was sent off just two minutes into the game for punching Lance Hohaia. It proved costly as Saints ran out 14-6 winners against their bitter rivals.
Before 2020, the only teams to have played each other in a Grand Final on four occasions were Saints and Leeds Rhinos. They faced off for three years in a row between 2007 and 2009 - and then again in 2011 - which was the year of that spectacular Rob Burrow try. Rhinos won all four of those matches.
The loser of Friday’s game will have the unwanted record of losing the most Grand Finals. Both Saints (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011) and Warriors (2000, 2001, 2003, 2014 and 2015) have previously lost on five occasions.
We will have three Harry Sunderland Trophy winners on show at the KCOM Stadium. Tommy Leuluai (2010), James Roby (2014) and Liam Farrell (2016) could all win the award for the second time. The last person to do so was Danny McGuire (2015, 2017).
As you expect with it coming at the end of the season, Grand Finals often see some legends of the sport bow out. We’ll see that in the case of James Graham and Sean O’Loughlin this year.
Sometimes it ends in delight – Kevin Sinfield, Jamie Peacock and Kylie Leuluai will tell you all about that - but heartbreak is never far away either - just ask Kieron Cunningham.
If O’Loughlin takes to the field, he’ll become the oldest player to feature in a Super League Grand Final at 38 years and 3 days, which would surpass Peacock’s record of 37 years and 300 days in 2015.
This will be O’Loughlin’s eighth Grand Final, 17 years after his first; his record to date stands at won four, lost three.
Graham was part of the Saints side that lost five finals in a row between 2007 and 2011. His solitary title came in 2006 against Hull FC. If he misses out again, he’ll become the first player in Grand Final history to lose in the showpiece game on six occasions.
George Burgess could become just the second British player to win a Super League Grand Final and a NRL Grand Final. However, 13 overseas players have completed the double – including Lachlan Coote - who played a starring role in Saints’ victory last year.
And finally, no player has ever been sin-binned in a Grand Final. One to look out for on Friday night, considering the feisty contest we saw in the League Leaders’ Shield decider last month.
