So who will win the two Betfred Challenge Cup semi-finals this Saturday at Elland Road, as well as the Women’s Challenge Cup Final?
Will St Helens win two out of the three games, with their women sweeping Leeds aside before their men do the same to Wigan?
Or can the Leeds women upset the favourites while Wigan repeat the medicine later in the afternoon?
The St Helens women are a Rugby League phenomenon and they will start the game against Leeds as strong favourites. They play a sparkling brand of rugby and they probably throw the ball around fare more than their male counterparts. They have cornered much of the country’s female talent and I would recommend to anyone with tickets for the event to get along early to enjoy some great action. You won’t be disappointed and that also applies to the coverage of the match on BBC 2.
On the face of it, you would be confident of backing St Helens to beat Wigan again in Saturday’s first men’s semi-final, as they did in the Good Friday game between the two clubs.
Wigan recently struggled to beat Salford, but then again so did St Helens on Friday night.
St Helens are the strong favourites. But there is no doubt that Wigan have the tools to do the job, with a strong pack and backs who can do tremendous damage with their pace alone. Any team with Jai Field playing alongside Bevan French is a team whose prospects can’t be dismissed.
Under Kristian Woolf, St Helens play more conservatively than they did under previous coaches, although no one can deny that Woolf has delivered a remarkable degree of success to the Totally Wicked Stadium and it’s hard to see Wigan troubling them if we go purely on recent form.
But will recent form go out of the window on Saturday afternoon, especially if Jonny Lomax, who, along with James Roby, is the pivot around whom the rest of the team performs, is absent with injury, as he could be?
I think the game is too close to call and I’m certain it will be an absolute thriller that will light up Elland Road.
And what will happen when Hull Kingston Rovers take on Huddersfield Giants in the final game of the day?
A few weeks ago, most people would have backed the Giants to prevail, when they were pressing close behind St Helens at the top of the table.
But now, despite their win over Wakefield Trinity last Thursday night, I suspect that many observers may have switched their favourites tag to the Robins on the back of their remarkable unbeaten run, which, until their defeat at Headingley on Friday night, stretched to six wins in a row.
The Robins seemed strangely disconnected at Headingley and I wonder whether they were saving their best, even subconsciously, for Saturday at Elland Road.
Tony Smith may have ruffled a few feathers at the club with his sudden announcement about his impending departure at the end of the season. But it’s difficult to conclude that his players have been diverted from the main task in hand.
And what a great thing it would be for the club if the Robins were to reach the Challenge Cup Final, where they would be hoping to fare much better than they did in 2025, when they went down 50-0 to Leeds Rhinos.
It’s difficult game to pick the winner of that game with any certainty although I suspect that Huddersfield, with Chris Hill back to lead their pack, may just have too much strength in the middle of the field for their opponents.
Kear can concentrate on Wales
Like most people, I was surprised to see that Bradford Bulls had parted company with John Kear last week.
But results count and Bradford’s were disappointing, so perhaps the decision was inevitable.
But the good thing is that John will now be able to concentrate on Wales and the World Cup this autumn.
It would do Rugby League in Wales an awful lot of good if he could get them to the World Cup quarter-finals.
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