From childhood friends to Wembley foes
Coaches of St Helens and Warrington face cup final clash to stir the emotions, writes Ross Heppenstall
From childhood teammates in south-west Sydney to facing each other at Wembley as rival coaches, there is a certain romance to today’s Challenge Cup final at Wembley. St Helens, the runaway Super League leaders with a treble in their sights, versus big-spending Warrington Wolves is a fixture to increase the heartbeat.
That Saints head coach Justin Holbrook and Warrington counterpart Steve Price have remained friends for more than three decades but are desperate to beat each other merely adds to the intrigue.
“Our relationship goes back 36 years,” says 41-year-old Price, who led Warrington to both major finals last season but lost them both in his debut season in charge.
“I was five and Justin was seven when we first played rugby league together at Milperra Colts. He was scoring all the tries while I was on the sidelines in a sandpit, drawing up game plans for him to execute!
“We went to East Hills High, the same high school as the swimmer Ian Thorpe and cricketers Mark and Steve Waugh.
“Since I came to Warrington last year, Justin and I have often met up as families. We might play footie in the park, have a barbecue or go for a beer. Our wives get on well and his boys are a similar age to my girls. It’s a good relationship and there’s a lot of respect between the two families.”
When the Sky cameras homed in on Holbrook during Warrington’s game at Wigan last week, he was predictably booed by both sets of supporters. The Saints coach saw
the funny side and when the lens turned to Price, the Warrington coach made a punching gesture as if to throw a haymaker at Holbrook.
Wigan coach Adrian Lam saluted when the cameras focused on him and Holbrook, 43, says: “No one planned it but I watched it back and thought, ‘Jeez, that’s a good look for our game, isn’t it?’ There’s me looking a bit sheepish and then Steve giving it the, ‘What are you doing here?’ punch in the face.
“Then Lammy topped it off and I thought it was great viewing.
“Everyone wants to win in sport, but Steve is a good fella and my earliest memories of Milperra were of him playing in the dirt while we were actually playing on the field.
“I said to him later in life, ‘I always knew you were going to be a coach but I didn’t know you were putting together game plans while you were playing in the dirt!
“We obviously go back a long way and it’s great to be coaching up against each other in a
‘I was five and he was seven. He was scoring all the tries, I was drawing up game plans for him’
Challenge Cup final at Wembley. It’s a proud moment for our upbringing.”
Aussies being Aussies, though, there is no denying the fierce competitiveness of both men as they bid to lift rugby league’s oldest and most famous trophy.
Price, whose side head to Wembley on the back of a fivematch losing streak, this week claimed that all the pressure is on St Helens. Holbrook’s side lie a staggering 16 points clear at the Super League summit and are heavily tipped to lift not only the Challenge Cup, but also to win the Grand Final.
Price, whose key playmaker Blake Austin misses out after failing to recover from an ankle ligament injury, says: “There is no pressure on us, none whatsoever, because everyone has already written us off and Saints have been the best team all year, like they were last season. We’re going to have to be very sound defensively across the park. There has to be a loser and hopefully it’s Justin.”
Much has been made of St Helens’ rich potential, but amid the build-up this week came a voice of reason. It was provided by Saints chairman Eamonn Mcmanus who, seven days on from walking his daughter down the aisle in Bali, will lead out Holbrook’s team at Wembley.
“We’ve actually been top of the league every week for the past two years, so there is no doubting we’re the best team, but to enter the history books you have got to win trophies,” says Mcmanus ahead of the first major final between the clubs.
“I’ve been involved at Saints for 20 years now and we’ve had some fantastic coaches, but in terms of making an impact on the side, I would rate Justin the highest in terms of immediate and prolonged improvement.
“However, he’s got to deliver the trophies if history is to show that. We haven’t won a major trophy since the 2014 Grand Final and, for St Helens, that’s too long.”
Holbrook will leave Saints at the end of the season to take charge of NRL outfit Gold Coast Titans and is aiming to bow out as a treble winner, a feat achieved by only three sides in the Super League era.
Standing in his way this afternoon will be one of his longest-standing friends and adversaries. It promises to be some scrap.