The Steven Mullaney Memorial Match will be played as the curtain-raiser on Betfred Challenge Cup Finals Day!
One of Rugby League’s most popular traditions will celebrate its 50th anniversary this weekend when the Year 7 Boys of Hull’s Sirius Academy West and Rainford High School near St Helens play in the Steven Mullaney Memorial Match, sponsored by inspiresport.
It was in 1975 when the Rugby Football League introduced a schoolboys curtain-raiser before the Challenge Cup Final at Wembley, with Wigan facing Widnes ahead of the main event between Widnes and Warrington.
Joe Lydon was a member of that Wigan team, and his future Chemics and Great Britain team-mate David Hulme played for Widnes – the first of dozens of youngsters who would go on to play in the Challenge Cup Final having had their first taste of Wembley as schoolboys.
The RFL and Featherstone Rovers chairman Bob Ashby added the name of Steven Mullaney to the match in the late 1980s, after the tragically early death of the star of the 1986 curtain-raiser between Wakefield and St Helens – and in a poignant touch, the current Featherstone chair Paddy Handley has invited Mullaney’s father Terry to lead out the Rovers team for their appearance at Wembley this weekend in the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup Final.
As schools in Rugby League heartlands, Sirius Academy West and Rainford High School each have impressive links with the sport.
When members of their teams were invited to attend the pre-Wembley media event at Oulton Hall on Monday, Rainford were accompanied by Emily Rudge, the St Helens and England forward who will be aiming for her third consecutive Wembley win in the Women’s Challenge Cup Final immediately after the inspiresport Champion Schools curtain-raiser.
The current Saints club captain Jonny Lomax and assistant coach Lee Briers also attended Rainford High – and will be cheering them on this weekend.
Meanwhile Rachel Gay, the sister of the former Hull FC full-back Richard who is the Academy’s director of rugby, was delighted to bump into Liam Harris, who will lead York Knights against Featherstone in the 1895 Final, and is a Sirius old boy – as is Hull KR superstar and reigning Man of Steel Mikey Lewis, who sent his old school a good luck message this week.
The Steven Mullaney Memorial Match also provides an opportunity for the RFL to reward outstanding young match officials – and that involves an historic link with Hull this weekend.
George Cox, a 17-year-old who will referee the match, is thought to be the first official from Hull to take charge of a match at Wembley.
He will be supported by two 18-year-old touch judges from West Yorkshire – Simeon Quarmby from the Huddersfield Refereeing Society, and Liam Grundy from the Dewsbury and Batley society.
Two highly promising female officials have been appointed as In-Goal Judges – 16-year-old Sophie Lumb from Huddersfield, and 18-year-old Rebecca Floyd from St Helens – with Aiden Beeley, a 16-year-old from Wigan, the Reserve Referee.
A new trophy has been commissioned for the match, and will be presented for the first time to the winning captain at Wembley on Saturday morning.
The match will be streamed live on the RFL YouTube channel from 10am.
It's Finals Day at Wembley Stadium on Saturday 7 June. Be at Wembley for both the Men's and Women's Challenge Cup Finals, as well as the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup Final and RFL Champion Schools Year 7 Boys Final, and purchase your tickets here!
