2008 World Club Challenge
| 2008 World Club Challenge | |||||||||||||
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| Date | 29 February 2008 | ||||||||||||
| Stadium | Elland Road | ||||||||||||
| Location | Leeds, United Kingdom | ||||||||||||
| Kevin Sinfield, Leeds Rhinos | |||||||||||||
| Referees | Ashley Klein | ||||||||||||
| Attendance | 33204 | ||||||||||||
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The 2008 Carnegie World Club Challenge was contested between Super League XII champions, the Leeds Rhinos and National Rugby League season 2007 premiers, the Melbourne Storm. For the fifth consecutive year the English home team defeated their Australian counterparts.
Leeds Rhinos qualified through being the 2007 Super League champions, defeating St. Helens 33 - 6 in the Grand Final.
Melbourne Storm clinched the 2007 National Rugby League title in a 34 - 8 belting of Manly, earning them a place in the World Club Challenge.
Melbourne played a warm-up game against National League One team Halifax.
The match was played in wintry conditions on Friday evening, 29 February, four rounds into the 2008 Super League competition and one week before the start of NRL season 2008.
33,204 spectators turned out at Elland Road, in Leeds for a hard-fought, low-scoring match in which each side scored a try apiece, with Leeds ultimately coming out winners, due largely to the kicking of Kevin Sinfield. The win meant the English champions side defeated their Australian counterparts for the fifth consecutive year. Many experts blamed the result happened due to Melbourne Storm's loss of many key players which were: Cameron Smith (Captain, Hooker, Australian Test Player), Greg Inglis (Five-Eighth/Centre, Australian Test Player), Matt King (Centre/Wing, Australian Test Player), Ben Cross (Prop, State of Origin NSW Player) and Michael Crocker (Second-row Australian Test Player)
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