Form means nothing when it comes to the Challenge Cup semi-finals – that’s the view of Leeds Rhinos boss Brian McDermott, as they take on their arch-rivals Warrington with a place in the final at stake tomorrow.
The Rhinos are heading into the game off the back of a shock defeat against local rivals Bradford, whilst the Wolves managed to pick up a fantastic win against Catalan away from home to keep up the pressure with the rest at the top of the table. However, McDermott refused to read into the form of both sides too much, saying the Challenge Cup mindset means that form is essentially irrelevant.
“They started off a bit slow this season, then they’ve hit a massive vein of form,” McDermott said. “Recently they’ve had a couple of scratchy ones, and I suppose the cliche regarding their form is the same as ours – it just doesn’t matter. You can look back in the history books and look at teams that have taken fantastic form into Challenge Cup games and been beaten.
“The beauty of this competition each and every year is that it brings out the best in some teams, and brings out the nervousness in other teams. What happened in our last game and their last game won’t have any bearing about our mentality heading into the game.”
