Terry Newton Carnegie Challenge Cup preview
8th May 2008Bradford Bulls hooker Terry Newton is bidding to become a member of a brand new elite club in Rugby League – men who have played in Challenge Cup Finals before and after the national stadium’s reconstruction.
Wigan-born Newton played for Leeds Rhinos when they beat London Broncos 52-16 in the 1999 Challenge Cup Final – the last Rugby League Final to be played under the famous old Twin Towers – and he is now looking for a potential outing at the revamped Wembley Stadium with the Bulls.
“It was something that I hadn’t really thought about until recently but that would be very special,” said 28-year-old international Newton, who is now plying his trade with engage Super League club Bradford Bulls.
Ironically that Wembley double was achieved in 2007, the year the Challenge Cup Final returned to Wembley, by another famous hooker, Keiron Cunningham and his St Helens team-mate Lee Gilmour when they beat French engage Super League club Catalans Dragons!
The Bulls face a serious challenge from the Dragons in their Carnegie Challenge Cup Fifth Round encounter at Odsal on Sunday and Newton has appealed to the Bulls faithful to get behind their heroes in this encounter with a side on a club record nine-match unbeaten roll.
“Carnegie Challenge Cup matches have a far different atmosphere than engage Super League fixtures and we need the Bulls fans to get behind us for this massive Cup game,” said Newton.
“It really makes a difference to the way we play when the Bulls fans make themselves heard and it would be wonderful for us to have that support on Sunday”.
The Bulls go into the Carnegie Challenge Cup tie buoyed by the fact that they were the last team to beat the Catalans in 2008. They won 20-18 when they visited the Gilbert Brutus Stadium, Perpignan in the engage Super League’s Round Five on March 8.
But Newton will also be aware that the Frenchmen have now surged into second place in the league table and they showed their mettle when they came from behind to beat Harlequins RL 18-16 in the ‘Magic Weekend’ at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff last Sunday.
There is also a history lesson for the Bulls to absorb about playing the Dragons in Bradford. The Catalans have won just once in seven league outings against the Bulls – they’ve never played each other in the Carnegie Challenge Cup before – and that victory came at Odsal in 2007 when the French side won 29-22.
Newton and his fellow Bulls are certainly taking their Cup encounter seriously. He said: “We know what we have to do. Our defeat by Leeds Rhinos in Cardiff last Saturday was an object lesson to us and we’ve got to make sure play for the full 80 minutes.
“If we don’t then we could be at risk when we play the Dragons!”
Newton has been a top class Rugby League professional for a decade but he is still thrilled by the Carnegie Challenge Cup. And his favourite Carnegie Challenge Cup moment in his career so far was Wigan’s 2001 Final meeting with their arch rivals St Helens at Murrayfield.
“We started as real underdogs that day and we came through to win 21-12,” he said.
“Of course it’s always a bit special when Wigan beat St Helens in a Final. Everybody made Saints the firm favourites to win and for us to upset those odds made it very special for me and the rest of the Wigan team.
“Our fullback Kris Radlinski had been in hospital for most of the week and got up out of his sick bed to win the Lance Todd Trophy as the Man of the Match. It was that special”.