Sourcing caveat: Try scorers and goal kickers for both teams could not be confirmed from available sources. Second-attempt research (30 Aug 2026): Frank Myler's Wikipedia page states he was 'succeeded as Widnes coach by Doug Laughton' in May 1978, and Widnes' own in-memoriam article for Laughton confirms 'Doug Laughton took over the job of team coach at Widnes when Frank Myler retired from the position in 1978' — so Laughton was Widnes' coach for this May 1979 final, and is now recorded in team1_coach. No lineup could be found for either side (RLP has no roster for this final and Wikipedia raw wikitext is blocked in this environment), and no Wakefield Trinity coach could be confirmed. Third-attempt research (30 Aug 2026): still no lineup found. RLP's dedicated 'players' page for the 1978/79 Challenge Cup competition was checked directly and carries only a database-guide disclaimer with no actual roster data rendered; a normal (non-raw) Wikipedia fetch of the '1978–79 Challenge Cup' article again rendered its lineup template with the player-name cells empty; and Widnes Vikings' own official website has no equivalent to Leeds' official match-timeline pages (its Heritage section is a 2026-launched recognition list, not historical match content). No Wakefield Trinity official-site equivalent was found either. Fourth-attempt research (30 Aug 2026): Wakefield Trinity's own official club-history page (wakefieldtrinity.com/our-club/club-history/) was located this round and names Wakefield's coach directly — 'Bill Kirkbride led Wakefield Trinity in this match' — now recorded below as team2_coach. This is independently corroborated by Bill Kirkbride's own Wikipedia page, which states he 'was the coach in Wakefield Trinity's 3-12 defeat by Widnes in the 1979 Challenge Cup Final during the 1978–79 season' on Saturday 5 May 1979, and by his listing as a coach on rugbyleagueproject.org. Still no full lineup for either side: RLP's players page for this competition was re-checked and again carries no roster data, a normal Wikipedia fetch of the article again returned blank name cells, and this session's web-search quota was exhausted before a broader press search for this specific final's team sheet could be completed. A Wakefield Express photo retrospective ('RETRO: 21 photos from Wakefield Trinity's last final at Wembley in 1979') was checked directly on the chance its captions named players, but its captions carry no personnel detail at all. Fifth-attempt research (30 Aug 2026): individual player Wikipedia biographies finally broke this open, per this project's established most-effective technique. Stuart Wright's page states, verbatim, that he 'played right wing, and scored a try' in this final — confirmed against the correct 12-3 scoreline and 5 May 1979/94,218 crowd details, so recorded as team1_tries and team1_lineup (position 2, right wing, per this file's standard 1;2,3,4,5;6,7;8-13 numbering convention). Mick George's page confirms he 'played for the club at Wembley in four Challenge Cup finals (1974–75, 1975–76, 1978–79 and 1980–81)' and gives his general position as centre — recorded with shirt number UNCONFIRMED since which centre slot (3 or 4) he filled in this specific final is not stated. Jim Mills's page verbatim confirms 'Mills played prop in the 12–3 victory over Wakefield Trinity in the 1979 Challenge Cup Final' [sic, actual score 12-3] — recorded as prop, shirt UNCONFIRMED (he was left-prop, i.e. 8, in the 1975 final, but that cannot be assumed to hold four years later). Mike O'Neill's page confirms he 'played as a substitute' in this final, with his general position given elsewhere on the page as prop — recorded in team1_interchange with shirt UNCONFIRMED (position omitted, matching this file's interchange-tuple convention of number+name only). On the Wakefield side, David Topliss's own page independently corroborates the player_of_match field already in this entry, additionally confirming he 'played stand-off, was captain' — recorded as shirt 6. Andy Fletcher's page confirms he 'played on the wing' in this final, corroborated by a Wakefield Trinity club document on wingers noting he 'also scored at Wembley in the 3-12 defeat to Widnes' during that Cup run — recorded as team2_lineup Wing, shirt UNCONFIRMED (side not stated). Trevor Midgley's page confirms he 'was an unused substitute' in this final, with his general position given as 'fullback, or centre' — recorded in team2_interchange, shirt UNCONFIRMED. One further name was investigated and deliberately EXCLUDED rather than recorded: Keith Elwell's Wikipedia page claimed he 'played hooker in the 7–16 victory over Wakefield Trinity' in this final — but 7–16 does not match this match's real 12-3 scoreline (verified verbatim on a second, independent re-fetch), an internal-inconsistency red flag matching this project's known WebFetch-summarization fabrication pattern, so his entire claimed appearance is treated as unreliable and left out rather than guessed into the lineup. Both lineups remain substantially incomplete (Widnes: fullback, other centre, stand-off, scrum-half, hooker, other prop, both second-rows and loose-forward still unconfirmed; Wakefield: fullback, other wing, both centres, scrum-half, both props, hooker, both second-rows and loose-forward still unconfirmed) — recorded as partial rather than left empty, per this project's sourcing standard.
Match report
Widnes beat a Wakefield Trinity side “decimated by injury” 12-3 at Wembley in front of 94,218 fans, continuing their run as one of the era's dominant Cup teams (their fifth Cup final win in seven appearances). Remarkably, the individual award went to a player on the losing team: Wakefield stand-off David Topliss won the Lance Todd Trophy for his performance despite the defeat. This was Wakefield Trinity's last Challenge Cup final appearance for over four decades. For much of the competition's early history the final rotated around northern club and representative grounds such as Headingley, Fartown, Central Park and the Athletic Ground, Rochdale, before Wembley Stadium became the final's permanent home from 1928/29 onward (with a short break during Wembley's 2000-2007 reconstruction, when finals were staged at Murrayfield, Twickenham and the Millennium Stadium instead). Since 1946/47, the competition's individual award, the Lance Todd Trophy, has been presented to the final's outstanding player, voted for by a panel of media representatives at the final whistle — on several notable occasions the trophy has gone to a player on the losing side, an unusual honour that reflects the award's focus on individual performance rather than simply reflecting the final scoreline. This was the 78th Challenge Cup final played, and, under the name “Widnes,” the 5th Challenge Cup title for the club. The result is recorded in this site's full results table alongside every other Challenge Cup final played since the competition's 1896/97 inception, cross-referenced against the venue and attendance figures gathered for that table. As with all of this site's rugby league match reports, any statistic that couldn't be confirmed from an accessible source — a scorer's name, an exact minute, a goal-kicking split — has been left out entirely rather than estimated, in line with the sourcing standard applied across the Challenge Cup, World Cup, World Club Challenge and domestic finals coverage on this site.