Bradford Bulls 41–26 Newcastle Knights — 2002 World Club Challenge
McAlpine Stadium, Huddersfield · Attendance: 21,113
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
2002 World Club Challenge: Bradford Bulls 41–26 Newcastle Knights, at McAlpine Stadium, Huddersfield.
Sourcing caveat: Try and goal minutes not confirmed in sources found.
Scorers
| Bradford Bulls | Tries: Paul (2); Withers (2); Gartner; Vainikolo Goals: Deacon (8/9 conversions) |
| Newcastle Knights | Tries: Johns (2); Buderus; Gidley; Smith Goals: Johns (3/5 conversions) |
Teams
| Bradford Bulls | Newcastle Knights | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Withers | Fullback | Robbie O'Davis | 1 |
| 2 | Tevita Vaikona | Wing | Kurt Gidley | 5 |
| 3 | Scott Naylor | Centre | Matthew Gidley | 3 |
| 4 | Lee Gilmour | Centre | Mark Hughes | 4 |
| 5 | Lesley Vainikolo | Wing | Joshua Smith | 2 |
| 6 | Robbie Paul | Five-eighth (c) | Sean Rudder | 6 |
| 7 | Paul Deacon | Halfback | Andrew Johns | 7 |
| 8 | Joe Vagana | Front row | Josh Perry | 8 |
| 9 | James Lowes | Hooker | Danny Buderus | 9 |
| 10 | Brian McDermott | Front row | Matt Parsons | 10 |
| 11 | Jamie Peacock | Second row | Steve Simpson | 11 |
| 12 | Daniel Gartner | Second row | Daniel Abraham | 12 |
| 13 | Mike Forshaw | Lock | Bill Peden | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 14 | Leon Pryce | Clinton O'Brien | 14 | |
| 15 | Paul Anderson | Matt Jobson | 15 | |
| 16 | Brandon Costin | Clint Newton | 16 | |
| 17 | Stuart Fielden | John Morris | 17 | |
| Brian Noble | Coach | Michael Hagan | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Stuart Cummings |
| Player of the match | James Lowes (Bradford) |
Match report
Bradford, fresh from their 2001 Super League Grand Final win over Wigan, overwhelmed reigning NRL premiers Newcastle, leading 26-14 at half-time. Robbie Paul and Michael Withers both crossed twice, with hooker James Lowes' tireless service and support play earning him the man-of-the-match award. Andrew Johns was Newcastle's best, scoring two tries himself and kicking three goals, but the Knights' defence could not contain Bradford's attacking edges, particularly the emerging Lesley Vainikolo. Danny Buderus, Matthew Gidley and Joshua Smith all crossed for Newcastle in a spirited fightback that closed the margin but never seriously threatened Bradford's control. Paul Deacon's near-faultless kicking underlined Bradford's efficiency in one of the competition's highest-scoring, most entertaining finals to date.This match belonged to the modern, annual World Club Challenge era launched in 2000, pitting that season's NRL Premiers directly against the same season's Super League Grand Final winners in a single fixture. The fixture as a whole began as a single unofficial match in 1976 and was repeated only sporadically through the 1980s and early 1990s: it wasn't played at all in 1988, 1990, 1993, or 1995-96, the last of those gaps caused by the Super League War splitting Australian rugby league into two rival competitions. The 1997 attempt to relaunch it as a 22-club, two-conference "World Club Championship" — five Australasian clubs touring Europe and five European clubs touring Australasia simultaneously — reportedly lost more than $5 million and was shelved for three years. It returned in 2000 as the simple one-off match still used today, missing only during the brief 2015-2017 multi-match "World Club Series" expansion (when the marquee fixture still determined the World Club Challenge title, alongside several other NRL-Super League pairings played the same week) and the 2021-2022 Covid-19 cancellations and the 2025 withdrawal by Penrith Panthers. The result here was Bradford Bulls' 1st World Club Challenge title and the 10th staging of the fixture since its unofficial 1976 debut.