TODAY marks the 60th anniversary of Saints’ memorable and emphatic 21-2 win over Wigan.
As such it is an opportunity to remember Joe Coan’s class of 1966 - a very special team in the history of St Helens RFC.
To plenty of people “1966 and all that” means Geoff Hurst, the Charltons, Gordon Banks, Bobby Moore et running around the old Empire Stadium with the gleaming Jules Rimet trophy after an extra-time World Cup Final win over West Germany.
But that very year the town of St Helens had its own champions to celebrate with Saints pulling off a four-cup haul with the Wembley win over their neighbours and fierce rivals being the centrepiece.
For the record skipper Alex Murphy lifted the Lancashire league, the League Leaders trophy and they backed up their Challenge Cup inal success with a 35-12 Championship Final win over Halifax the week later.
Although half of the side was born and bred Sintelliners it was a team that had been assembled from across the England, Wales and South Africa.
So home-grown heroes Murphy, Billy Benyon, Peter Harvey, Tommy Bishop, Ray French and Frank Barrow were joined by Welshmen John Warlow, John Mantle and, although missing for Wembley, Kel Coslett.
Albert Halsall and Bill Sayer - a pair of Wiganers in the front row – were joined by tough as teak London enforcer Cliff Watson.
And on the flanks two flying Springboks in Tom van Vollenhoven and Len Killeen, putting the finishing touches to a team of legends that did more than most to etch their names into the town’s sporting folklore.
Those were the days of partisan finals with both towns emptying to fill their respective ends to produce what was then a record crowd for rugby league at Wembley - 98,536.
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And the game even produced its own poetry, in south Lancashire’s own inimitable way with skipper and master of mischief Murphy penning the lines: “Roses are red, violets are blue, Saints 21 Wigan 2.”
It was a one-sided final with Saints scoring three tries to Wigan’s none.
Welsh loose forward Mantle, who would go on to have the distinction of playing back row, second row and prop for Saints at Wembley, drove over for the opener 17 minutes.
Benyon’s perfectly weighted chip wide to the corner flag was swept up in one movement by Killeen on 54 minutes and cheeky number seven Bishop collected his own kick nine minutes from time to put the icing on the cake.
The main talking points to this day were not those tries – more Lance Todd trophy winner Killeen’s ability to kick goals from across the park, including a ridiculous one from 65 yards, eight yards in from the touchline.
The other was Saints’ ability to exploit Wigan lack of a recognised hooker given Colin Clarke had been suspended, and they had called in a makeshift number nine in Tom Woosey.
In the era of competitive scrums, when hookers had to win the ball, this was decisive.
Saints – and skipper Alex Murphy in particular – cottoned on to the fact that, in the days before tap penalties, they could stray offside and win the ball back from the scrum from the kick to touch.
However, that aspect and its importance is disputed by Saints players.
Cliff Watson was one of the legends of that Saints team of the 1960s gave a colourful account of that game in his autobiography from Saints to Shark, written by Tom Mather.
He wrote: “Ray French had a terrific game that afternoon; he was all over that pitch. I think he tackled me three times because he tackled every Wigan player.
"He must surely have been in the running for the Lance Todd Trophy that eventually they gave to Len Killeen.
“In the end we simply starved Wigan of the ball and won the game easily.
" I know people argued that it was unfair and we kept going off side but in truth we didn’t, we had no need to as Wigan hardly touched the ball all the game.
“It is only when you experience something like that you realise just how important winning a Wembley final is and just how much the supporters want it.”
We will have more on Saints' achievements of 1966 today and next week.
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