2004 saw a scandal in the sport of rugby league involving Great Britain international players Sean Long and Martin Gleeson.
As a result, the St Helens squad, having already competed in three more high-intensity matches than all the other Super League teams, were struggling to cope and coach Ian Millward was worried about his players becoming fatigued and losing form heading into the semi-final.
To counter this, he rested eleven first choice players for the clash with defending Super League champions Bradford, effectively playing his reserves and accepting certain defeat in that game.
Knowing that St Helens were set to field a weakened side, Long and Gleeson placed bets on Bradford to win.
An RFL investigation chaired by a panel comprising Judge Peter Charlesworth, Deryck Fox, and David Poulter accepted that there was no evidence to suggest Gleeson had attempted to play badly to influence the result, but both players were declared guilty of breaching an RFL by law prohibiting players betting on matches in which their club was involved, regardless of whether or not they were involved in the game.