RL Retro: Brian Noble recalls Wigan Warriors' record comeback in 2007 Super League play-offs
Watch the thrilling Super League play-off clash between Bradford Bulls and Wigan Warriors from 2007 on Sky Sports Arena from 8pm on Friday
Friday 12 June 2020 06:23, UK
It was September 21 - the opening game of the 2007 Super League play-off series.
A meeting between third-placed Bradford Bulls and a Wigan Warriors side, who remained unbeaten in their last five games of the season, to secure the final play-off spot.
That year the Bulls boasted an outstanding home record at Odsal, beaten just twice in front of their own fans and unbeaten in their last nine home games heading into the match.
S/Lge Retro
Both clubs had suffered points deductions during the season as well, Bradford being docked two points and Wigan losing four for salary cap breaches the previous year.
Adding further spice to the occasion, Wigan were under the coaching guidance of former Bradford hero Brian Noble.
Noble had led the Bulls to five straight grand finals from 2001 to 2005, winning at Old Trafford on three occasions, before leaving for Wigan in April 2006.
"I was still uncomfortable going back to Bradford," Noble told Sky Sports. "Because it was my hometown club that I'd been involved with for 30 years and I never liked going back."
I was still uncomfortable going back to Bradford, because it was my hometown club that I’d been involved with for 30 years and I never liked going back.
The visit to Bradford was Wigan's first play-off appearance in three years, but Noble insisted that there was plenty of belief within the team.
"We had no pressure really, because we had snuck into the six, we'd beaten Saints the week before, we had played really well.
"Every time you get anywhere near the playoffs, you think we can get to the grand final. I had done it with Bradford from third."
Bradford forward David Solomona crossed for a first-half hat-trick to help the Bulls take a 22-6 half-time lead and Noble admitted to questioning his own game plan.
"The way the game started I thought, 'mate, you don't know what you've done here, you're in for a good hiding'," Noble said.
"We weren't that bad. We bombed three opportunities for tries, so I knew we had tries in us.
"Solomona was the key, he was unstoppable from that kind of distance, but everybody knew he was unstoppable. All week we said 'this guy is unstoppable'."
At the break, footage was shown on Sky Sports from inside the Wigan dressing room, where the head coach was using drink bottles on a table as a way to demonstrate his point.
"I was putting all the ducks in a row basically," Noble said. "Bradford were getting us in and around the ruck a little bit and then they were going to the fringes on our left side.
"We weren't working together in a line and we weren't going far enough forward to disrupt what Bradford were doing.
"So I was saying, 'don't have one bottle in front of you over there, have them next to each other'.
"You have a whole lot more chance because when a couple of people jump the line which made opportunities for Bradford going into the line a whole lot easier. It was a defensive message I was giving."
The half-time team talk seemed in vain, and most would be thinking that the game was all but over, when Iestyn Harris scored Bradford's fifth try of the night just two minutes after the restart.
But not Noble.
"I wasn't thinking game over," Noble said. "Watching the footage back I was amazed at how calm I looked, because inside I was helter-skelter.
"I knew we had points in us, I knew we could break Bradford's line. Whether we could score enough was the question and more importantly whether we could stop them scoring was the challenge."
I wasn’t thinking game over. Watching the footage back I was amazed at how calm I looked, because inside I was helter-skelter.
With 25 minutes left, Wigan trailed 30-6 and needed to produce the greatest-ever Super League comeback, at that point, if they were to advance in the play-offs.
"I never once lost the fact I thought we could win," Noble said.
Mark Calderwood touched down on 55 minutes, for the first of four Wigan tries in 16 minutes. The former Leeds Rhinos centre then scored his second, before Harrison Hansen touched down in the 65th minute.
But it was when Calderwood completed his hat-trick with an outstanding 85-metre interception try from a Shontayne Hape pass, that the score was level at 30-30.
"What about his intercept? You know what, he shouldn't have been there," Noble said. "I remember thinking at the time, 'what's he doing there?'
The 31-30 win was the biggest comeback in Super League history at that stage.
It was, in fact, Wigan who extended the comeback record to 26-points, when they won 42-36 at Hull KR five years later.
But it was the feat of erasing a 24-point deficit in a play-off that remains one of the finest achievements of the summer era.
"I was massively thrilled, because I was involved in something that doesn't happen very often, I don't care what anybody says. I was heart and soul Wigan that night - definitely," Noble said.
"However, before the game, when I went to the shop for a pint of milk, I copped heaps. When I went to my own family, half of them are still Bradford season ticket holders, they were saying 'you're going to get flogged'.
"I didn't like doing it to Bradford, but if you put me in the same situation again, I'd do it every day of the week."
