Wigan won the Rugby League Challenge Cup final at Wembley for the eighth time in a row on Saturday April 29, 1995. Four months later Rugby Union embraced professionalism on a global scale.
Today, more than two decades later, the Wigan effect on Union at the very highest level is as pronounced as ever. Round Two of the Six Nations, like Round One last weekend and the three to come, will be influenced to a greater or lesser degree by two of the old Lancashire mill town’s favourite sons.
After five seasons with England, Ireland’s defence coach Andy Farrell is in the throes of his eighth Championship, Shaun Edwards in his eleventh in the same role with Wales. Wigan’s contribution to Union goes far beyond a pair of local lads engaged in Celtic causes.
Five more make up a seven as magnificent as any seen since Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen in the old Western classic. Each player is synonymous with Wigan’s monopoly of the Wembley showpiece during the first half of the Nineties before switching codes.
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