Last updated 15:52, Friday, 29 August 2008

ONLY one of the best two teams in England contest tomorrow’s rugby league Challenge Cup final, but since when did you need a head-to-head between the very best to make a grand spectacle?

Poor Lad: Don Fox after missing that last-minute goal at Wembley in the Challenge Cup final in 1968

This occasion in itself is guaranteed to produce a show-stopper, as it has consistently done through so many decades.

Yes, St Helens versus Leeds would have been the desirable final, but Saints against Hull will do nicely.

I have been privileged to have been present at many Wembley classics down the years - most memorably Wigan’s 26-16 defeat of Leeds and the Saints’ titanic 40-32 defeat of Bradford - and have without exception returned with that joyous feeling of having been thoroughly entertained.

One of the great pleasures of travelling with and being among rugby league crowds is the absence of the sense of intimidation associated with soccer. There’s humour, warmth and bonhomie and a genuine desire for a thrilling game in which the best team wins.

The bookmakers view tomorrow’s clash as already over as a contest, with Saints at ridiculously short odds. It’s understandable that the layers are taking no chances with a team that has won its last 20 matches off the reel, but it’s what happens in the 80 minutes that counts and simply being there gives Hull all the hope in the world.

It’s that very winning sequence statistic that Hull hooker Shaun Berrigan hopes his side will benefit from, reasoning: “Hopefully they are due for a loss after 20 wins in a row. You can’t keep winning forever and that might work in our favour.”

There is little that Berrigan has not achieved in a career that has seen him win five caps for Australia, represent Queensland 12 times and win the Clive Churchill Medal in Brisbane’s 2006 NRL Grand Final against Melbourne.

But as he prepares to walk out at Wembley at the end of his debut season in the engage Super League, the 29-year-old is urging his side not to be overawed by St Helens’ formidable recent run of form.

“I know everyone thinks that these are big games but we need to look at it like it isn’t,” he says.

“If people go in thinking it’s this game and it’s that game then they try and do something special that might not come off. You need to do what you’ve done to get to the final.

“It’s my first experience of Wembley and I’ll be like a little kid in a chocolate factory when we have a look around on Friday as it’s always nice to go and play at these big stadiums.

“But we’ll get that out of the way on Friday and then get ready. It’s the highlight of the year and after the way we started the year you wouldn’t think that we’d be in a Challenge Cup Final so I’m certainly ready to play.”

Berrigan has shown his versatility amid a crippling injury crisis and says: “I’m happy to do whatever is best for the team. That’s what being part of a team is all about. It’s the team first and then me second.

“It’s been a bad season for us with injuries but that’s just part of football and it doesn’t bother me

“That’s part of rugby league and you’ve just got to get on with it. This year’s been really bad with injuries and stuff but that’s just the way that it goes sometimes.

“You can’t help it when people get injured and as part of a team you have to find a way around these adversities.

“But if you look through history it’s the teams that keep their key combinations together for the longest periods of time that are the most successful.”

The game will see Berrigan go head to head with Saints hooker Keiron Cunningham, the finest number nine of the Super League era and someone that Berrigan admires and knows well.

“Keiron is an awesome player,” he says. “I played against him for Brisbane against St Helens and he was great then. He’s been around a long time and is a great player. It will be a good challenge.

“They’re a quality team with some quality players in their key positions so we’ll definitely have our hands full.

“It’d be nice to end my first year on a high though as I’ve really enjoyed my time here.

“All the boys have been really good to me since I got here and they’re really good friends. I’ve got a bond that I will have with them forever.”

Two things ignited my love affair with rugby league. One was sitting on my dad’s shoulders as a kid to see the action at Oldham’s Watersheddings and the other, some years later, that unforgettable moment of raw emotion when Don “Poor Lad” Fox missed that unmissable kick from under the posts that would have given Wakefield victory over Leeds.

Fox, who died earlier this month, will rightly be remembered tomorrow with a minute’s silence ahead of kick-off.

Despite that faux pas, Fox enjoyed a glittering career in which he played more than 500 times and accumulated 1,755 points. He was widely regarded as ahighly gifted and skilful player who boasted great-ball playing abilities.

He was a British Lions tourist in 1962 and was also capped for Great Britain against Australia in 1963.

Some of Fox’s old Wakefield teammates, including his brother Neil, will be at Wembley, taking part in a parade of honour by players from the Leeds and Wakefield sides who contested that unforgettable1968 final.

The Lance Todd trophy winner in that match? Don Fox.

PHIL ROSTRON