Interesting situation surrounding World Club Challenge tickets revealed by St Helens

The reigning Betfred Super League champions, St Helens, will travel to Australia in February 2023 to face NRL champions, Penrith Panthers, for the World Club Challenge in what will be new head coach, Paul Wellens’ first competitive fixture.

The match will take place at the home of the Panthers, the BlueBet Stadium on Saturday 18 February, 2023 (6pm KO local/ 7am UK).

In what will be a first for fans in the UK, the World Club Challenge will be broadcast free-to-air by Channel 4 and will be part of double header by the broadcaster that day with the Betfred Super League clash between Hull KR and Wigan Warriors live at 1pm.

This will mark the 8th time St Helens have played in the World Club Challenge, with two victories to their name, coming in 2001 and 2007, both against Brisbane Broncos.

Penrith Panthers have previously appeared twice in the World Club Challenge, being beaten by Wigan Warriors (1991) and also being beaten by Bradford Bulls (2004).

Due to St Helens travelling to Australia in early February, their Betfred Super League Round 1 fixture, due to be against Huddersfield Giants, has been postponed until a date later in the season. Details of which will be confirmed in due course.

This already creates an interesting situation as does the situation around the tickets for this clash and Saints’ game against St George Illawarra Dragons the week before.

The tickets are now on sale for both, putting to rest any fears that the game might not go ahead after Penrith claimed they had not “signed off” on the fixture.

However, what is interesting is that the Saints aren’t selling the tickets themselves.

They said: “All tickets are on sale via the NRL Ticketing platform ONLY.

“The Club will not be selling tickets directly.”

So for any Saints fan wanting to head down under they will need this link: click here.