[2] After this memorable match, the World Club Challenge was decided to be made an official annual feature on the rugby league calendar.

Coached by Graham Lowe and captained by Ellery Hanley, they finished at the top of the 1986–87 Rugby Football League to claim the RFL Championship.

Coached by Bob Fulton and captained by Paul Vautin, they finished the regular season as minor premiers, then went on to win the 1987 NSWRL Grand Final against the Canberra Raiders on 27 September 1987 to claim the Premiership.

Former four-time Manly premiership winning Fullback Graham Eadie, who at the time was playing in England with 1987 Challenge Cup winners Halifax, was on hand as a match commentator as was dual Manly premiership player (and captain of the 1978 team) and the skipper of the 1982 Invincibles, Max Krilich.

In his biography The Strife and Times of Paul Vautin written by Mike Coleman and released in 1992, the Manly captain told that the Sea Eagles players were so convinced that they would beat Wigan after their Grand Final win over the Canberra Raiders and after the undefeated 1986 Kangaroo Tour, that they treated the trip to England more as a holiday than anything serious and continued celebrating their Grand Final win while there.