History of the Wigan Warriors

Wigan, Leigh and Salford were suspended by the RFU for breaking the strict amateur code despite their argument that broken-time payments were necessary to avoid undue hardship for their working class players.

On Saturday 28 October 1911, Wigan played a match against the Australasian team which visited England on the 1911–12 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain and won.

In 1948 Wigan took part in the first televised rugby league match when their 8–3 Challenge Cup Final victory over Bradford Northern was broadcast to the Midlands.

[4] Joe Egan returned to coach Wigan and during his time they won the Championship play-off final in 1960 defeating Wakefield Trinity 21–5, the Challenge Cup in 1958, 1959, 13–9 against Workington Town and 30–13 against Hull F.C.

Eric Hughes became coach of Wigan Warriors, replacing Graeme West in February 1997 following an early exit from the Challenge Cup in 2 consecutive years.

Still undefeated in the league and the fact coach John Monie—in his second spell at Wigan—had never lost a cup tie meant Wigan were huge favourites against the unfancied Sheffield Eagles.

In November 1999, coach Andy Goodway was sacked by Wigan chairman Maurice Lindsay after the Warriors' failure to win a trophy for the first time in 15 years.

On an emotional day of high drama Wigan's final game at Central Park was against arch rivals St Helens on Sunday 5 September 1999.

However, the following season Raper guided Wigan to their 17th Challenge Cup, defeating St Helens 21-12 at Murrayfield Stadium, 7 years after previously lifting the trophy.

Wigan's Kris Radlinski inspired the side with a player-of-the-match performance against the much-fancied Saints to claim the Lance Todd Trophy despite being in hospital the previous week with a foot infection.

Defeat was Gregory's final match as Head Coach of Wigan who travelled to the USA to receive treatment for an illness he contracted after an insect bite whilst in Australia.

[16] After a stellar season played largely at prop forward, Wigan captain Andy Farrell was named Man of Steel[17] for the second time.

[22] 2006 proved to be another tough year for Wigan with Ian Millward being sacked following a run of one win in eight games which saw the club face a genuine threat of relegation.

[25] Despite later coming out of retirement in an attempt to help the club avoid relegation,[26] Radlinski was replaced as skipper by 23 year-old loose forward Sean O'Loughlin.

In this play-off campaign, Wigan overturned a 30-6 deficit to defeat Bradford Bulls 30-31 in a match widely regarded as the greatest comeback in Super League history.

Following victories over Hull Kingston Rovers and Leeds Rhinos in the Super League play-offs, Wigan reached the Grand Final for the first time since 2003.

Following victory in the Grand Final, Wigan broke with custom and travelled to Australia to contest the 2014 World Club Challenge, but were defeated 36-14 by the Sydney Roosters.

The Warriors finished in second place in 2014 and reached the Grand Final where they were defeated 14-6 by St Helens in a game that was overshadowed by prop forward Ben Flower's red card for a brutal double punch on Saints halfback Lance Hohaia.

The club reached the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup, losing to Hull FC[55] and recorded a third successive second-placed finish and a fourth straight Grand Final appearance.

[57] At the Super 8s stage of the season, Wigan won an unprecedented 7 out of 7 matches[58] including revenge for the Good Friday defeat[59] by soundly beating arch rivals St Helens 10-30 at the Totally Wicked Stadium.

Wane would be replaced by former Wigan half back Adrian Lam for the 2019 season, whilst club legend Shaun Edwards would return from Rugby Union to lead the side from 2020 onwards.

As a result of victory in the Grand Final, one of Lam's first games as Head Coach would be the World Club Challenge where the Warriors again faced Sydney Roosters.

[67] Despite a poor start to 2019, Wigan finished the regular season in second place, but suffered a shock defeat in the play-offs against Salford Red Devils, losing 4-28 at the DW Stadium to miss out on the Grand Final.

The final turned out to be one of the most dramatic in history - with scores tied at 4-4 and with ten seconds remaining, St Helens player Jack Welsby touched down to win the game 4-8.

[77] On 15 July 2022, Wigan's Bevan French broke the individual record for tries in a Super League game, touching down seven times in a 60-0 win at home to Hull FC.

[95] In an October Instagram post, Panthers halfback Nathan Cleary expressed a desire for the fixture to take place at the NRL's Magic Round.

By the end of the 1990s, the area had begun to suffer from its location next to the River Douglas as well as disused coal mines directly underneath, resulting in occasional drainage problems which affected the pitch.

Wigan won the 1987 World Club Challenge match against 1987 Sydney (New South Wales Rugby League) Premiers Manly-Warringah at Central Park played on 7 October.

[111][failed verification] Warriors' first game at the then JJB Stadium was a Super League play-off match against the Castleford Tigers which Wigan lost 14–10.

Recently this site has been sold for development after the Warriors moved all team operations to the newly renovated Robin Park Arena next door to the Brick Community Stadium in a deal with Wigan Council.