...and a long time "between drinks"

18.5 years, actually.

One of O'Sullivan's few decent games

This was the season before I started to watch (91-92). Never thought we'd have to wait so long for a trophy.

O'Sullivan got mixed reports. I heard a few people say he was decent, and of course he held down a regular first team role in the NRL so can't have been too bad. Yet, 91-92 he went to newly promoted Swinton and barely played I think. So I wonder what happened to him over a couple of years.

The Regal or equivalent should be brought back. It was a great competition and even in those years of near-total Wigan dominance, it gave some other teams (Widnes, Castleford, us) a trophy.

This was a bit of a 'forgotten trophy'. Didn't have anything like the folklore around it that the 86 Premiership had (understandably, as it was a less regarded trophy) but also seemed to be less talked about/remembered than the 89 Lancashire Cup, which came in a period of high optimism when it felt like we were on an upward swing. That was only a year earlier...we'd started that season like a house on fire then Greg Mackey left and it had derailed us although we had an end of season rally in the Challenge Cup. So there was a bit of optimism in the summer of 1990 having made Wembley, and we made a few interesting signings bringing in O'Sullivan who had been a Grand Final winner in that great Meninga Canberra team that Widnes always go on about beating in the WCC, plus the Welsh RU players Allan Bateman and Kevin Ellis.

However, although the Welsh guys played well, and O'Sullivan in patches, the team underachieved and we were very much mid-table mediocrity at this point in the mid Brian Johnson era. We were a workmanlike team with some good players, Dave Lyon, Gary Mercer, Duane Mann, Paul Cullen, but we were a bit short on star quality. Mike Gregory missed most of the season and this was a real shame because he was seemingly going in to his peak as a player in 1990 but from this point on he had a lot of injury problems. We lacked playmakers, which we addressed over the following years bringing in Kelly Shelford next season, then bringing Mackey back, then bringing in Jonathan Davies which made us contenders. But at this point we were short of stars.

The Regal Trophy was a real highlight of this season at the time though, we beat Hull and St Helens and then probably the high point of the season was beating Widnes in the semis at Central Park at the time Widnes were a powerhouse. The final itself was a pretty dull affair but it was more about just getting over the line and winning a trophy, there was just one try from Mark Thomas which settled it.

It was the only time Dessie captained us to a trophy win, so was nice to see him lift the trophy in the primrose and blue, although he was past his best as a player at this point.

Yes, I seem to remember we really struggled for decent wingers in the following few seasons, actually:
I never saw Dessie at his best. When I started watching, he could never seem to catch a ball with the line at his mercy.
Mark Forster and Rob Myler - both offered a lot on their day, but frequently injured.
So we ended up with a lot of...
Paul Williamson - very mediocre, I never saw anything in him that suggested he was first team quality.
Neil Kenyon (RIP) - very lightweight, physically. Ran in hat-tricks against poor sides. A liability against strong opposition.
Rick Thackray - inexplicably brought back from Widnes reserves (?) to plug a gap. Like having a 50 year old on the field.

Forever tainted by 25 years ago, in the Regal Trophy semi-final at Knowsley Road ........

The post match Conga was more entertaining than the game. Yes, we got over the line, but seem to make hard work of it., after we punched above our weight to beat Widnes in the semi. Although he had a reasonable game in the final, we didn't see the NRL version of Chris O'Sullivan in the P&B.