Wigan Warriors v Sydney Roosters: The World Club Challenge in numbers

Attendance: The highest World Club Challenge attendance was 54,220 for Wigan’s win over Brisbane in 1994. The second highest is the 36,895 who watched Wigan beat Manly in 1987, while third place goes to the 31,515 who watched Sydney Roosters beat Wigan in 2014.Appearances: Wigan draw level with Leeds on eight, but with a win will set a new record with five.Liam Farrell and Sean O’Loughlin are Wigan’s most experienced World Club Challenge stars, with three appearances each. Sydney’s Cooper Cronk has made two previous appearances - for Melbourne Storm - winning one and losing one. Most tries:Joe Burgess scored a hat-trick against Cronulla in 2017, and Michael Jennings also scored three, for the Roosters against Wigan, in 2014.

History

The first World Club Championship/Challenge match was on Tuesday, 29 June 1976 when Eastern Suburbs (now Sydney Roosters) beat St Helens 25-2 at the Sydney Cricket Ground before a crowd of 26,856. The Saints had won the Premiership in 1975-76, while Easts were the 1975 Australian Premiership Grand Final winners.

The one-off match was given little official status and there were no further meetings between the countries’ top teams until Wigan faced and defeated Manly 8-2 at Central Park on 7 October 1987 in the re-styled World Club Challenge. Wigan qualified as the 1986-87 Division One champions and Manly as Australia’s Minor Premiership (league leaders) winners, although they did win the Grand Final just 10 days before meeting Wigan.

The World Club Challenge was given full International Board recognition in 1989 and was played at irregular intervals up to 1994 between the British champions and Australia’s Grand Final winners.

In 1997 there was a Super League World Club Championship involving 22 clubs. There was a gap of a few years before the World Club Challenge was restored in 2000 with a match between Britain and Australia’s Grand Final winners.