page_title: World Club Challenge
section_title: 1976–1999: Origin and development
hierarchical_section_title: World Club Challenge / History / 1976–1999: Origin and development
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Trophée du World club challenge 1997 remportée par Brisbane Broncos
context_page_description: The World Club Challenge is an annual rugby league competition between the winners of the Australian NRL and the English Super League. The first such match was played in 1976 but did not become a regular fixture until the late 1980s. It was also punctuated in the 1990s by the Super League war but has been held every year since 2000. The Sydney Roosters are the current champions, defeating St Helens 20-12 in 2020.
  Between 2015 and 2017, the World Club Challenge became the championship match for the 3 game, World Club Series. Two further exhibition matches were played prior to the main game.
  As the World Club Challenge is a match between the premiers of the NRL and the Super League Champions, it has been possible for teams from New Zealand, France and Wales to win it as well as England and Australia, however, to date only English and Australian sides have competed in and won the World Club Challenge.
context_section_description: The competition began unofficially in 1976 as a match between Sydney's Eastern Suburbs and Premiership winners St. Helens. In 1987, another unofficial match took place when Wigan chairman Maurice Lindsay invited Manly-Warringah to Central Park.
  
  The first official World Club Challenge was between Widnes and Canberra in 1989. Three further matches, each involving Wigan, were staged in the early 1990s with the 1994 match being staged in Australia. This would be the last time for 20 years that this would happen.
   After the 1994 match logistical issues meant the concept was put on hiatus until it was revived in 1997.
  With the outbreak of Australia's Super League War in 1995, the World Club Challenge was not staged again until 1997 when  the competition was restructured to include the twenty-two clubs from the Australasian Super League and the European Super League. The twelve Australian Rugby League affiliated clubs did not take part. With six rounds in two hemispheres and $1,000,000 prize money, the competition was prohibitively expensive to stage and reportedly lost over $5,000,000. This, coupled with the poor ratings and attendances both in Australia and Europe, led to the competition being postponed for two seasons. 
  Returning to a one-off match between the League champions in 1998, a World Club Challenge as a show-piece fixture at Ellis Park in Johannesburg was mooted. However this did not eventuate.
caption: 1997 tournament trophy
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