Super League held its 5,000th game on Friday evening as Warrington Wolves hosted Leeds Rhinos and those on Sky Sports selected their favourite moment from all 4,999 previous games, including pundit Jon Wilkin.
While you would think that he would choose perhaps a Grand Final-winning match or one of his own man-of-the-match performances, he shared a memorable story from his St Helens days.
Flashback to 2008, we had the second year of Millenium Magic Weekend in Cardiff, Castleford Tigers had been promoted to Super League, it was the lead-up to the Super League licensing period and the average attendance across the league was 10,338.
Jon Wilkin on his Super League most memorable moment
In game 2,175 that year, Daniel Anderson’s St Helens are facing Brian McClennan’s Leeds Rhinos in the play-offs. St Helens had just won the League Leaders Shield, with the Rhinos finishing just one point behind them in second.
However, Sky Sports pundit Jon Wilkin remembers the game, and more importantly the post-match, for a slightly different reason.
He said: “It’s game 2,175 and it’s in 2008. It’s a play-off semi-final. It was us against Leeds Rhinos, the golden era was just getting going. We ended up winning this game.
Wilkin scored in the game and was quick to state that his 40-metre break before the try “is one of the slowest breaks you’ll ever see in rugby league.”
However, the story after the match is what made this game so memorable for Wilkin.
He added:Â “The story wasn’t this night, it was after this.
“We had a week off and Daniel Anderson has decided to take us to Madrid on a spa weekend camp.
“We got to the hotel, the pool was closed, the gym was closed and it ended up being a 3-day drink.”
Wilkin was keen to state that whilst it is fun to look back at now, it’s also mixed with sadness, claiming it’s one of his biggest regrets.
He finished:Â “We came back and we got pumped in the Grand Final. That period after that game is one of my biggest regrets.
“It’s a great memory but also full of very sad memories and four subsequent years after that were even sadder.”
St Helens went on to lose the next three Grand Finals against Leeds, Wigan and then Leeds again, eventually winning in 2014 before their four back-to-back wins from 2019 to 2022.
Jon Wilkin and Jodie Cunningham share their favourite all-time Super League moments 👇 pic.twitter.com/c9pnITnYx3
— Sky Sports Rugby League (@SkySportsRL) March 28, 2025
