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

St Helens– Wigan Derby
Other names	Good Friday Derby, Wigan Saints Derby, The Derby, The Original Derby
Locale	North West England
Teams	St. Helens ; Wigan Warriors
First meeting	16 November 1895
Latest meeting	St. Helens 32 – 10 Wigan ; (12 July 2019)
Next meeting	27 September 2019 at St Helens [1] (Super League playoffs)
Statistics
Meetings total	326
Most wins	Wigan (184)

The Rugby league matches between St. Helens and Wigan are local derbies 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

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 a piece.[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 14 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 ever 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 Warriors and St Helens. With Wigan town at one end of their Knowsley estate and St Helens town from 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

Competitive matches

Played	St Helens	Drawn	Wigan
325	123	17	185

Friendlies

Played	St Helens	Drawn	Wigan
15	6	0	9

War Emergency League matches

The Rugby league Wartime Emergency League meetings during the first and second World Wars did not count as competitive matches and thus, no league titles were officially awarded during this time.

Played	St Helens	Drawn	Wigan
20	2	1	17

Overall record

In all competitions, competitive and uncompetitive:

Played	St Helens	Drawn	Wigan
360	131	18	211

Sources

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

gollark: I'm sure there's some text-based version, which I'd much prefer.

gollark: I don't particularly care enough to do detailed study/note-taking of several hours of presentations on this.

gollark: I think that's the acronym, anyway.

gollark: No, the chaos communication congress™.

gollark: It is a thing, I've heard of it before.

References

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

[1] ttp://www.wiganwarriors.com/fixtures/

[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

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	Alex Murphy Vince Karalius Tom van Vollenhoven
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