Did lack of fans produce a Grand Final classic?

It is an interesting question. St Helens and Wigan Warriors did play out an epic showpiece behind closed doors last week for the championship prize.

Ordinarily, such title-deciders can be tense and nervous affairs, players perhaps feeling the pressure of walking out in front of 70,000 people at Old Trafford and subsequent displays being off-key or not near their best.

Does relieving the pressure from that baying expectancy of the crowd or the shock at the sheer noise they create, free up teams and enable them to adopt a more relaxed approach to the crunch contest?

St Helens prop Alex Walmsley is someone who has experienced both sides of the coin.

The Dewsbury-born England international helped Saints edge a thrilling 8-4 success at Hull’s KCOM Stadium last Friday when 19-year-old Jack Welsby won it with a bizarre try in the very last play of the enthralling game.

Walmsley helped them win the Grand Final in front of 64,000 last year and also, with 70,000, in 2014, only his second season after making the move from part-timers Batley Bulldogs.

Speaking exclusively to The Yorkshire Post, he insisted he did not think playing behind-closed-doors was any catalyst for making the game so high quality.

But the 30-year-old, who played in the 2017 World Cup final, added: “For the younger lads, it might have helped; I think there is something in that and a few of us did mention it.

“We had some young boys in there; Jack Welsby was in his first Grand Final and he came up with the biggest play of the night.

“Does he come up with that play if he’s struck by the crowd? I’d like to think he still would.

“But it does take that edge away. I remember my first Grand Final coming out to 70,000 people. It does take you aback.

“I like to think it gets the best out of you but sometimes it can have an adverse effect.

“Maybe last Friday the lack of crowds did allow us to focus solely on the rugby and not the occasion as much.

“But the main travesty is when Jack comes up with that play – the biggest play of the season – there’s only 30 people celebrating rather than 70,000!

“I think we’ll be better for it, though, and, hopefully,, we’ll get to another Grand Final next year and there’ll be 75,000 there and those lads know they’ve already been there and done it.

“The crowd will just be another added factor and, hopefully, steer them in a better direction come the game.”

Walmsley – recovering from surgery after playing through the final with a knee ligament injury – said Saints actually placed more pressure on themselves because of the situation they found themselves in in 2020.

He added: “I feel it’s the greatest thing we’ve achieved since I’ve been at the club.

“The sacrifices we’ve made – not seeing families or friends and being as Covid-secure as possible. It was tough and everyone took pay cuts as well.

“We didn’t want to do it all for nothing. We were in eighth position before lockdown. We were in a bit of a tough spot.

“If anything, there’s been more pressure on us in this Grand Final than previous finals.

“I don’t know if that is just because of not wanting this season to go to waste; after Covid, lockdowns and everything else, it would have been easy to just put this season to bed and say it’s a year like no other.

“But for us it spurred us on even more to go on and achieve something as no-one will forget this year. No-one.”

It was the first time the Grand Final had been switched from Manchester – but not Walmsley’s first Grand Final in Yorkshire.

He won the BUCS University final at Headingley with Leeds Metropolitan University in 2012.

There were not many people there that day, either, but the talented front-row has certainly come a long way since.