Why St Helens were free to celebrate Grand Final winning-try

That is because it was the final match of the season and would therefore cause no issues in subsequent weeks.

Questions had been asked about the policy after Wigan's Zak Hardaker took to social media to complain about being fined for celebrating in the semi-final against Hull FC.

Well... just received ANOTHER fine for CELEBRATING in the Hull match. No high fives or hugs or anything of that sort. Every other sport celebrates really don’t understand why they do it in RL. Definitely needs looking at ahead of next year. #Joke

— Zak Hardaker (@zakhardaker1) December 3, 2020

This particular policy was brought in to curtail unnecessary contact to reduce the risk of coronavirus impacting on the competition.

The policy was questioned, given the physical nature of the contact sport, but like dispensing with scrums - celebrations were deemed unneccessary. 

Players were told they could fist bump or pat a team-mate on the back but were not allowed to hug each other after scoring a try.

Fines initially started at £250 but have subsequently been reduced.

However, given that the Grand Final was the last match of the season, both sets of players were free to celebrate their one try each in an utterly compelling showpiece at the KCOM Stadium.

Saints' understandably joyous celebrations at the end captured the essence of the season - and the experience would have been poorer without it.

Saints supporters had already said on social media that they would have had a whip round to pay for any....but now that won't be neccessary.