Now Williams wants fab four
ENGLAND stand-off George Williams is after an unprecedented clean sweep of all four trophies after inspiring Wigan to victory over Australian NRL rulers Cronulla.
Wigan won the World Club Challenge for a record fourth time on Sunday with a 22-6 win.
It completed a 2-0 series success for the Super League after Warrington won 27-18 against Brisbane on Saturday.
Williams’ man-of-thematch performance was fuelled by memories of Wigan’s first World Club Challenge triumph over Manly in 1987, a match in which Wigan head coach Shaun Wane played.
Now home-grown 22-year-old Williams is eyeing the Challenge Cup, League Leaders’ Shield and Super League title in 2017.
Williams said: “It’s a dream come true. Last week we watched some footage of the old finals and heard from those players who were involved in 1987 and what it meant to them. Now we’ve got our story to tell and it’s something we can look back on in 10 or 15 years and be proud of.
“Our aim was always to win all four trophies because Waney is a tough taskmaster and we have a hungry team.
“I know it’s a tough ask, but I don’t see why we wouldn’t be capable of it if we show the grit we showed on Sunday.”
The series, expanded in 2015 from a one-off World Club Challenge into a six-team event, was scaled back this season after a lack of interest from NRL clubs.
But RFL chief Nigel Wood said: “We’ve had conversations already with our colleagues at the NRL and we’ll have more this week to see what we can do for 2018 to give it the appropriate positioning in the calendar.”
Meanwhile, St Helens have completed a deal with Gold Coast Titans that will see Joe Greenwood move to the NRL in exchange for former Catalans forward Zeb Taia.