IF you had looked down the fixture list at the start of the season to select the must-see games of 2026, you would certainly have picked out the clashes between Hull KR and Wigan, who have fought out the last two Super League Grand Finals.

So to see Wigan coach Matty Peet selecting a team of reserves to compete against the current champions was clearly a massive letdown.

He did it to ensure that he suffered no injuries or disciplinary points that would keep any of his first-choice players out of this Saturday’s Challenge Cup Final.

And in that sense it is easy to understand why he did it.

Hull KR coach Willie Peters, who did much the same thing in a league game at Wigan in 2023, a week before that year’s Challenge Cup Final, this time adopted precisely the opposite policy of selecting his best available squad. And in doing that he appears to have minor injuries to contend with in relation to three of his players who he would normally want to select against Wigan at Wembley.

I suppose that if Wigan win on Saturday, their supporters will be happy enough with their coach fielding a weakened squad against the Robins last Thursday night.

Nonetheless it will have done a lot of damage to Super League’s reputation, when viewers will have tuned in expecting to see a close contest, only to be treated to a one-sided match in which the Robins scored eleven tries.

Some RFL officials have told me that in future they will try not to schedule potential blockbuster matches a week ahead of the Challenge Cup Final to reduce the prospect of two teams meeting in the league that might be facing each other at Wembley.

But who can predict which teams will qualify for Wembley several months ahead of the time?

The real problem is that the Challenge Cup Final shouldn’t be played in the middle of the season.

Traditionally it was played at the end of the season and in my view it should return there.

I don’t know what sort of attendance the RFL is anticipating this Saturday.

But the following week Wigan will be playing the Catalans Dragons in Paris.

Will their fans have pockets that are deep enough to enable them to follow their team to two European capitals in successive weeks?

I sincerely hope so.