ESPN staff
February 22, 2015
Russell Crowe watched his South Sydney team come away with the gong after demolishing Super League champions St Helens in an embarrassingly one-sided 2015 World Club Challenge.
Crowe’s decision to put rugby league before the Oscars paid off as he watched his beloved Rabbitohs follow up their 2014 NRL title triumph and their recent success in the NRL Nines to claim a first world crown with a 39-0 rout of Saints.
Putting Langtree Park ahead of the red carpet in Hollywood, Crowe arrived by helicopter at nearby Haydock Park racecourse to join the sell-out crowd of 17,980 and witness a further demonstration of the gulf that remains between the NRL and Super League.
Bath’s union convert Sam Burgess, hero of their Grand-Final success, sat next to the Hollywood actor and director to cheer on his twin brothers George and Sam as the Rabbitohs became the sixth NRL winners of the World Club Challenge in the last seven years.
Their seven-try triumph also completed a 3-0 whitewash of the cream of Super League following earlier wins by St George Illawarra and Brisbane Broncos over Warrington and Wigan respectively.
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd
