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.
Half Time:l
Wigan 4 Manly 2
Attendance:l
36,895 (Gate Reciepts: £131,000)
Referee:l
John Holdsworth (Kippax)
Television:l
Match was broadcast by Australia's "Network Ten" - Commetary: David
Fordham, Graham Eadie & Max Krilich
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