Wigan Warriors • Re: Rugby League replayed

Steve Davies was seen as a promising young centre who, for some reason, never really fulfilled his potential. Alan Taylor was similar, an exciting young stand-off who Wigan unwisely sold about a year after this final. He then came back to haunt us in at least one match, playing for someone like Barrow IIRC, and ripping us apart.

You're right, that whole team was mismanaged and badly dismantled, but that seems to have been a hallmark of Wigan in the 1970s. It was only a year or so earlier when Wigan sold Eddie Cunningham and Stuart Wright, both of whom would go on to be Great Britain mainstays. I know it's easy to make judgements with hindsight, but both of those lads were clearly sensations-in-waiting, and the fact they went on to Saints and Widnes respectively was equally ridiculous, as those clubs were the dominant powers at the time. To make things worse, Keiron O'Loughlin and, almost unbelievably, Bill Ashurst, would be out the door themselves in another year.

But there was also the incredible business in or around 1978 when John Bevan fell out with Warrington and was offered to Wigan for the measly sum of £20,000 (a steal even then) ... and Wigan said it was too much.

It's no wonder we crashed downhill to relegation not long after this.