Penrith and Wigan have both declared their intentions to do battle in next year’s World Club Challenge with the Panthers hoping to finally capture the elusive title in 2024.
The Warriors win over Catalans Dragons landed the English heavyweights their first domestic league title in five years and sets up a potential meeting with the Aussie champions, who have won three-straight NRL premierships, next year.
World Club Challenge 2024: Penrith and Wigan keen to do battle
After a three-year hiatus of the famous fixture due to the pandemic, Penrith and St Helens met in February with last year’s Super League champions getting the better of their NRL counterparts.
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The loss for the Panthers meant their wait for the club’s first WCC trophy goes on, although Ivan Cleary stated his intentions to finally bag the title in 2024 during grand final celebrations.
"It would be awesome to get another crack at it," the head coach told AAP following his side’s heart-stopping win over Brisbane.
"We were pretty bummed about that one. We absolutely gave it our best, it was the first game of the year and St Helens were too good for us that night."
Saints became the first English side in almost three decades to defeat the Aussie champions in their own backyard when they won in golden point at the foot of the mountains.
But after winning four titles in a row, Saints’ stranglehold over the Super League came to an end in 2023 with their bitter rivals beating the Dragons 10-2 in the final at Old Trafford.
The Warriors now also have their sights on knocking off Penrith next season on their home patch with the newly crowned English champions having already beaten the Panthers in the WCC way back in 1991.
In fact, Wigan's four titles in this fixture is the most of any side other than the Sydney Roosters who have been crowned the WCC champions on five separate occasions.
"We want to go over there," Wigan coach Matt Peet declared.
"We’re looking forward to it – it would be an honour. I know the club would like to go there. It’s an exciting thing for next year, for the future."
Generally, the WCC has been hosted in England at the start of the NRL season but due to players commitments with the Rugby League World Cup in 2022 and a shortened turnaround, this was deemed unfeasible.
As a result, Saints became the first side since Leeds in 2018 to travel over to Australia for the match.
It marked only the second time ever during the NRL era the WCC was hosted in Sydney after the Chooks did so in 2014 during their victory over Wigan.
"We’ll play anywhere," Peet concluded.
"I’ll let those higher up in the club than me sort it out and I’ll just make sure we’re ready to play."
