For months now Super League have been masterfully building hype towards the 25th Grand Final.
The first 24 have been littered with outstanding moments so it certainly won’t have been hard.
From Jason Robinson winning try in the inaugural Grand Final, to that Michael Withers knock on. Sean Long’s drop goal and the voluntary tackle to Terry Newton’s fulltime tears in 2003.
Danny McGuire’s try that ended the long wait and the Rhinos threepeat secured by Lee Smith’s controversial try. Leeds doing it from fifth to Ben Flower’s red card, Dom Manfredi’s superb comeback to the Saints own threepeat which could become four this weekend.
So, with so many moments sewn into the Grand Final tapestry, Super League relied on the past to promote the present with a brilliant knockout style tournament to crown Super League’s greatest try.
Bizarrely, the final saw two tries from the same game, the same team, collide as Rob Burrow’s solo effort battled against the try he set up for Ryan Hall which would go on to help seal the title for the Rhinos in the 2011 decider against St Helens.
Burrow’s try came towards the end of a first half shortly after he had arrived on the field as a superb sub. He ducked under the tired Saints defenders before sidestepping the brilliant Paul Wellens on his way to the try line.
Then, with the scores locked at 16-all with 11 minutes left on the clock, Burrow again went for a scamper. He showed the dummy to carve open the Saints defence before a second dummy sent Francis Meli away from the action.
As James Roby dived at Burrow, he fed the ball to Hall to give Leeds the lead and it would be a lead they never relinquished.
But which try was crowned the greatest in Grand Final history? Unsurprisingly, it was Burrow’s solo try which won with 92% of the vote with Ryan Hall himself taking to Twitter to say he had voted for Burrow’s solo effort as well.
"That was the perfect moment of being me" đź‘Ź
YOUR Ultimate #GrandFinal Try Champion 🏉
Described by the man himself, @Rob7Burrow 🙌🔥#SuperLeague #GF25 pic.twitter.com/n0T5Dy57UH
— Betfred Super League (@SuperLeague) September 23, 2022
Burrow was the man of the hour that day as Leeds and he proved the doubted wrong. He had been dropped to the bench by coach Brian McDermott but battled to be Leeds’ most important player towards the end of the season.
He won the Harry Sunderland Award with a unanimous vote only emulated once by teammate Danny McGuire in 2017.
It’s fitting that a moment from the last time St Helens and Leeds met in a final should be anointed as the Grand Fina’s greatest try as the two teams prepare to go at it again in 2022.