WiganlTries:l

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ManlylTries:l

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Their had been a match between Eastern Suburbs and St Helens in 1976 but this match between Wigan v Manly was the first of what would be a run of World Challenges over the next few years. Played at Central Park on a dry Wednesday Night, a huge crowd of 36,895 packed into the ground and the visit was of such standard that Australian Network Ten were over to cover the game Live back to Australia. It was a bruising encounter with no tries being scored. Wigan were quickly penalised for an illegal tackle and then caught offside for Michael O'Connor to kick Manly 2-0 ahead. Wigan quickly levelled with a penalty on 5 minutes with Des Hasler penalised for stamping on Shaun Wane. The only other first half scoring was a 23rd Minute from Stephenson for a 4-2 half time lead. Wigan then went 6-2 up straight after the interval with Manly penalised for Holding Down and then the visitors were reduced to 12 men after Ron Gibbs was sent off for an elbow on Joe Lydon. Stephenson then dispatched the resulting penalty for 8-2 and that proved to be that in terms of scoring. Manly began to get desperate as time wore on and another flare up in the 66th Minute saw Brian Case sin binned. Despite it being back to 12 v 12 for 10 of the last 14 minutes, Manly couldn't find the try and conversion needed to level and Wigan hung on for a massive success.

Wigan 4 Manly 2

36,895 (Gate Reciepts: £131,000)

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