Manly-Warringah 28–20 Leeds Rhinos — 2009 World Club Challenge
Elland Road, Leeds · Attendance: 32,569
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
2009 World Club Challenge: Manly-Warringah 28–20 Leeds Rhinos, at Elland Road, Leeds.
Sourcing caveat: Ryan Hall's try minute is given imprecisely in the source used ("71½") — treated as approximately 71'.
Scoring timeline
| 37′ | Leeds Rhinos — try, Jones-Buchanan |
| 64′ | Leeds Rhinos — try, Senior |
| 71′ | Leeds Rhinos — try, Hall |
| 80′ | Leeds Rhinos — try, McGuire |
Tries with a sourced minute, in order scored. Tries whose exact minute isn't recorded in available sources appear in the Scorers table below but not here.
Scorers
| Manly-Warringah | Tries: Stewart (2); Watmough (2); Matai Goals: Orford (4 goals) |
| Leeds Rhinos | Tries: Jones-Buchanan 37'; Senior 64'; Hall 71'; McGuire 80' Goals: Sinfield (2 goals) |
Teams
| Manly-Warringah | Leeds Rhinos | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brett Stewart | Fullback | Lee Smith | 1 |
| 2 | Michael Robertson | Wing | Scott Donald | 2 |
| 3 | Jamie Lyon | Centre | Carl Ablett | 3 |
| 4 | Steve Matai | Centre | Keith Senior | 4 |
| 5 | David Williams | Wing | Ryan Hall | 5 |
| 6 | Chris Bailey | Five-eighth | Danny McGuire | 6 |
| 7 | Matt Orford | Halfback | Rob Burrow | 7 |
| 8 | Jason King | Front row | Kylie Leuluai | 8 |
| 9 | Matt Ballin | Hooker | Matt Diskin | 9 |
| 10 | Josh Perry | Front row | Jamie Peacock | 10 |
| 11 | Anthony Watmough | Second row | Jamie Jones-Buchanan | 11 |
| 12 | Glenn Hall | Second row | Ian Kirke | 12 |
| 13 | Glenn Stewart | Lock | Kevin Sinfield | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 14 | Heath L'Estrange | Ali Lauiti'iti | 14 | |
| 15 | Adam Cuthbertson | Ryan Bailey | 16 | |
| 16 | George Rose | Luke Burgess | 19 | |
| 18 | Shane Rodney | Kallum Watkins | 23 | |
| Des Hasler | Coach | Brian McClennan | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Jason Robinson |
| Player of the match | Anthony Watmough (Manly-Warringah) |
Match report
A feisty, penalty-strewn contest turned decisively in Manly's favour in a blistering start to the second half, when the Sea Eagles ran in three tries inside seven minutes to blow the game open. Anthony Watmough and Brett Stewart both scored twice, with Steve Matai also crossing, as Manly's power game overwhelmed Leeds after a spiteful passage of play saw two players sin-binned for fighting around the 20th minute. Rob Burrow was knocked out and took no further part, further hampering the home side. Leeds rallied through Jamie Jones-Buchanan, Keith Senior, Ryan Hall and a stoppage-time Danny McGuire try to make the scoreline respectable, but Matt Orford's reliable boot kept Manly ahead throughout. Watmough's dominant, physical display in the middle third of the field earned him the player-of-the-match award as the NRL premiers denied Leeds a third World Club Challenge title.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 Manly-Warringah's 1st World Club Challenge title and the 17th staging of the fixture since its unofficial 1976 debut.