He remains the most decorated player in rugby league history yet for all his achievements as a member of the all-conquering Wigan team of the 1990s Shaun Edwards will not be entirely at ease come kick-off at Wembley tomorrow.
The man who played in 11 Challenge Cup finals, including nine wins in the cherry and white of Wigan, between 1984 and 1999 has few regrets from his illustrious career.
However, the 1990 Man of Steel, who was recently named by Yorkshire Post reader
s at stand-off in the greatest Great Britain team of all time, will find it hard to watch the pre-match parade when past winners of the Lance Todd Trophy will be introduced to an 80,000-strong crowd.
It remains the source of some regret to Edwards, now the coach of Premiership rugby union club Wasps, that he was never named man of the match in a Challenge Cup final, just as Martin Offiah, twice a Lance Todd winner with Wigan, continues to bemoan the fact that he could not manage to score a hat-trick of tries at Wembley.
"I tried to get it quite a few times and thought I'd done enough in 1990 but it wasn't to be," said Edwards, whose heroics in a 36-14 victory over Warrington did not become clear until long after the final hooter.
"Bob Jackson caught me with a late tackle in the ninth minute and there was an accidental clash of heads. I knew something was
wrong but I had put a lot
into getting to Wembley and the pain wasn't going to stop me.
"I gave it a good shot. Maybe if the Press (whose votes decide the winner of the Lance Todd Trophy) knew that I had a depressed cheekbone and triple fracture of the eye socket, the outcome might have been different.
"I'm not complaining, though. 'Gregs' (Andy Gregory) deserved the award and we won, which is the main thing."
Such was Wigan's domination of the sport in the Nineties that Wembley became a home from home for the club, its players and supporters, yet for all their familiarity with the place the thrill of stepping out on to sport's most famous turf never lost its appeal to Edwards.
"I have some great memories from playing at Wembley but the one thing that will always stay with me is the feeling you got when you walked out of the dressing room and emerged into the sunshine," he said.
"The atmosphere, the noise, the emotion was something else as you headed out across the track and on to the pitch.
"That walk has gone now because the players come straight out of the tunnel on to the grass but I'm sure the new stadium will generate its own unique memories."
Perhaps fittingly, Edwards brought the curtain down on his Wembley exploits in the last final to be staged at the old stadium and though his team, London Broncos, were soundly beaten 52-16 by Leeds, the day remains the source of considerable pride for him.
"Just getting to Wembley was an amazing achievement by London and though many people seem to think it was a one-sided final that wasn't how it happened," said Edwards, who again had to play through the pain barrier with a fractured thumb. "We were actually winning with 20 minutes to go but the injuries we had took their toll and Leeds ran away with it in the end.
"Had we won, it would have been the biggest upset in Challenge Cup history, bigger even than what had happened the year before."
As well as marking the end of Wigan's pre-eminence, the 1998 final produced a result which continues to provide the source of inspiration to underdogs everywhere with Sheffield's memorable 17-8 win proving that in sport anything is possible.
Tomorrow will see Catalans try to harness the spirit that swept Sheffield to victory but Edwards fears recent events will conspire against the prospect of a fairytale finish at Wembley.
"In many ways, Catalans beating St Helens 21-0 in Super League two weeks ago was the worst thing they could have done," said Edwards. "Any chance that St Helens might go into the match thinking it could be one-sided perished that night.
"I think St Helens will win but that's not to say it will be one-way traffic because Catalans have lots of big-game players and in Stacey Jones someone who I believe is one of the best players ever to play rugby league.
"I'm his biggest fan. He's never played in an outstanding team in his club career but wherever he's been he's done outstanding things."
After retiring in 2000, Edwards elected to stay in London to be near his son, whose mother is Heather Small, the lead singer of pop group M People. The capital's gain is very much the loss of rugby league's Northern heartland which has been denied the expertise of an individual who has proved to be every bit as much a master tactician as a coach as he was a player.
Edwards has never lost touch with his roots and tomorrow's match will be more an opportunity to see what he is missing out on rather than what has escaped him in the past.
"There's no better sporting occasion than the Challenge Cup final at Wembley," he said. "Events like the Heineken Cup final are special but Southerners aren't as nutty as us Northerners and it's going to be great to see so many people who really know how to party."
