Danny Houghton plays down Hull heroics in Challenge Cup final victory
Monday 29 August 2016 17:34, UK
Hull FC Hooker Danny Houghton played down his heroics after helping end the club's Wembley hoodoo.
The Black and Whites came from 10-0 down, scoring two tries in the last 20 minutes to beat Warrington 12-10 and lift the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup for the fourth time but the first in nine attempts at Wembley.
Scrum-half Marc Sneyd kicked the winning points to earn the Lance Todd Trophy as man of the match.
But, had the votes been taken at the very end of the game, it might well have gone to Houghton after his try-saving tackle denied what looked set to be the match-winning try for Warrington second rower Ben Currie.
Hull coach Lee Radford described it as "the most important tackle in any game I have been involved in" but Houghton labelled it routine.
"It's not about me," he said. "I'm sure if it was someone else in that position, they would have done the same thing.
"It's part and parcel. You're in the middle of the game for 80 minutes and, when a few big boys run at you, you're bound to make a lot of tackles."
It was Houghton's 52nd tackle of a classic final that lived up to all the pre-match hype and helped Hull atone for their depressing 16-0 defeat by Wigan at Wembley three years earlier.
Houghton actually played in the traditional schoolboy curtain-raiser at Wembley in 1988 and cheered from the stands at the Millennium Stadium when Hull won the cup in 2005 but inevitably his mind was cast back to 2013 in the immediate aftermath of his greatest moment.
"It's a dream come true to hold this," he said clutching the trophy. "We'll cherish this forever. It means everything, it's my boyhood dream to lift this and I've finally achieved it. I can die a happy man now. We're legends forever now, we'll go down in history.
"We took a lot out of 2013. It was probably the worst cup final of all time and to lift it after maybe one of the greatest cup finals of all time, it's special."
Fittingly, Sneyd kicked the winning conversion to atone for his disappointment in 2014 when he was substituted in the first half of Castleford's defeat by Leeds.
"We always believed," Houghton added. "We've been in positions like that before. Luckily Mahe Fonua and Jamie Shaul came up with some special plays for us."
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Shaul, another Hull-born player, could scarcely hide his delight after sending the 22,000 Black and Whites fans into raptures by touching down in front of them.
"It's got to be up there with having my little lad," he said. "It was an unbelievable moment for me and my family and all the boys. It is probably the most important try I've ever scored, it will stay with me forever."
Radford's Super League leaders can expect a hero's welcome when they take the cup back to Hull on Sunday but then it will be back down to business as they prepare for a crucial top-four clash with St Helens at Langtree Park on Friday.
"It's always going to be tough backing up after that," Shaul admitted. "We're still on for the treble."
