LEEDS’ record five-try wing, Tom Briscoe, was part of the Hull FC team “nilled” by Wigan on his second appearance at Wembley. That 13-0 defeat in 2013 was the springboard for a personal recovery that scaled new heights with his record haul yesterday.
“I know the feeling the Hull KR players are going through, but that low makes for an incredible feeling when you’re climbing the stairs to get a winner’s medal,” the Lance Todd Trophy man of the match winner said.
As for his second long-range try, Briscoe said: “The line seemed a million miles away. I broke the first tackle attempt, looked up, got to 50 metres and saw Ken Sio tracking across and thought, ‘Am I going to make this?’ It was a great effort by him to push me right to the end. I was glad when it was over.”
The Rhinos coach, Brian McDermott, said: “What a fantastic job he’s done after being so long out with a shoulder injury. He had some doubts about how strong his shoulder was but in his first game back we saw traces in him we’d really missed. He has been a great acquisition for us and let’s hope he stays with us for a long time.”
Leeds are now on course for a first clean sweep of trophies, finishing with the Grand Final at Old Trafford in October. “It’s going to be huge. We’ve the opportunity to do something special and are the only team that can do that,” McDermott said.
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“It will be a big thing to do but we really want to do it. I make no apologies for it. We want the league leaders’ trophy, then to go to the Grand Final and win.
“To be at the pinnacle of your industry and to do what only a few teams and coaches have done is really exciting. It’s a great motivation to get out of bed in the morning.”
The Leeds captain, Kevin Sinfield, said of his last Wembley final: “I’m so pleased to have got another winner’s medal. I feel very proud to have played for a great club for so long. We wanted to end the right way and win trophies on the way out.
“Our forwards were outstanding and we got the job done with a real team performance. I’m really pleased for Tom Briscoe. To do that in a final takes some doing.”
“I know how tough it is to lose here so I really feel for Hull KR. The scoreboard might not reflect it, but they still gave us a real game. At half-time we felt relatively happy. We were still in a game, even at 16-0.”
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The coach of Hull KR, Chris Chester, who lifted the cup as a Hull FC player against Leeds in 2005 at Cardiff, admitted that his team’s performance had let down the club’s fans and that “we’re all hurting”.
“Everything was too quick for us in the first 15-20 minutes,” Chester said. “We got back in the grind, but at the start of the second half we dropped the ball four times. You don’t give champion sides like Leeds leg-ups.
“I’m proud of my guys and it’s been a great journey to get here. It makes us want to be here again. It’s a team sport and we weren’t good enough from one to 17.
“We’ll certainly use this as motivation after doing really well to put ourselves in this position. It wasn’t a true reflection of my boys this year. We weren’t at the races. Whether it was the short turnaround or playing Championship sides [in the Super 8 Qualifiers], I don’t know. It’s about Super League survival now.”