The bookies fancied St Helens to make progress in the Challenge Cup and join a semi-final line-up of Hull KR, Huddersfield Giants, and the Wigan Warriors, as they welcomed the Warrington Wolves to the Totally Wicked Stadium with an eight-point handicap on the coupon.

With no meeting so far in 2024, the last time that the two sides met was back in September 2023 when the Saints were the victors by 16-8, but the last time that there was a meeting in the Challenge Cup, also a quarter final stage, back in 2020 it was Warrington who secured the win before losing to Salford in the semi-final.

Huddersfield experienced the ‘magic of the cup’ when they beat the Dragons in France last night, the question on everyone’s lips was whether this Sunday afternoon would be Warrington’s turn.

The original derby pitted St Helens against the Wigan Warriors in the traditional Good Friday encounter which would see one of the two sides go clear at the top of the table while a big points loss for either side would see them slipping down a very tight league table.

It was a sell-out crowd at the Totally Wicked Stadium as arguably the best two sides in the competition went head-to-head, a mouthwatering prospect for the neutral as well as supporters of both sides.

The bookies were struggling to split the sides, making the home side slight favourites, and handicapping them by a couple of points, but it really was anyone’s as Saints looked to end a brilliant and lengthy Wigan winning streak.

St Helens were strong 18-8 winners over the Leeds Rhinos when tonight’s Challenge Cup hopefuls met in a regular round Super League encounter last weekend, and the bookies made the visitors slight favourites again by giving the Rhinos a two-point start on the handicap coupon.

The Rhinos had Paul Momirovski back in the centres alongside Rhyse Martin while Saints had Waqa Blake in the centres and Moses Mbye at scrum half for Lewis Dodd, and Curtis Sironen back in the starting line-up with Batchelor on the bench.

A place in the quarter finals was up for grabs and on paper there was little to choose between the two sides.

Despite home advantage, the Leeds Rhinos were given a four-point start on the handicap coupon as they took on the reigning Champions St Helens at Headingley Stadium in the sole Friday evening game in Super League XXIX.

Saints already had second place and knew that a win in excess of twenty-two points would see them above arch-rivals Wigan Warriors into top spot, the Rhinos knew that a win would lift them to second spot in the table overnight.

Saints were without the suspended Mark Percival after last week’s sending off and lost Tommy Makinson in the warm-up while Leeds had ex-Saint James Bentley back in their side after his suspension.

This was the first of two encounters between the two sides in two weeks.

The top of Super League beckoned for either the Huddersfield Giants or St Helens as the two sides met at the John Smiths Stadium for a round two encounter which was the prelude for many to the World Club Challenge match between Wigan and Penrith which would take place later in the evening.

With Jake Connor sidelined due to concussion protocols, Tui Lolohea stepped into the Giants full-back spot while the visitors were without the services of Konrad Hurrell, and Waqa Blake after last week’s comfortable win over London Broncos.

St Helens were the favourites for the win with the Giants having been given a ten-point start on the handicap coupon but this early in the season it was a bit of a guessing game.

The bookies had made the Catalans Dragons slight favourites ahead of tonight’s final eliminator against a Saints side looking for their fifth consecutive Old Trafford appearance and potentially a fifth consecutive Grand Final win.

The two sides last met in July at the Totally Wicked Stadium when the Dragons secured a 14-12 win with the season’s previous meeting at the Stade Gilbert Brutus at the beginning of May also witnessing a Dragons win, by 24-12 on that occasion.

Steve McNamara’s side have had a week off to prepare for their big game, and once which they will have been building towards for the last month, while Saints had a tough run out last weekend in the opening round of the playoffs when they beat Warrington Wolves by 16-8.

A place in the play off semi-finals awaited and a win for St Helens would see them travelling to Perpignan next week to take on the Catalans Dragons, while should the Warrington Wolves spring a surprise and get the win then they would be travelling to Wigan next week while last nights winners, Hull KR, would be getting on the plane to France.

St Helens have won all three encounters so far in 2023, by twenty-two points at home in April, and by four and then twelve in the meetings in July and a fortnight ago at the Halliwell-Jones.

Warrington had been given a twelve-point start on the handicap coupon after suffering a monumental fall in form following a stunning start to the season, and all but their most optimistic fans were expecting a Wolves defeat and Saints marching closer to another Grand Final.

Leeds Rhinos made their way across the Pennines looking for their fourth consecutive Women’s Super League Grand Final appearance as they looked to defend their title but they knew that they had a monumental challenge in their way as they took on a St Helens side who finished a place above them at the end of the regular season.

A Grand Final place against the York Valkyrie at the LNER Community Stadium on the 8th of October was up for grabs and the Rhinos were slight favourites after they won the round nine encounter three weeks ago by 34-22 while the sought further revenge for the defeat to Saints in the Challenge Cup Final.

Saints had never beaten the Rhinos at the Totally Wicked Stadium but were confident that today would be the day.

St Helens fans travelling to Warrington for tonight’s round 26 game would be keeping one eye on the score updates from the DW Stadium as they hoped that their side could thrash an out of form Wolves side who are in danger of dropping out of the play-offs, while Castleford Tigers sprung some kind of miracle against one of their rivals for the minor premiership.

A win for Saints would send their interest into the final round of the season and while defeat wouldn’t certainly mean that the Wolves would miss out on the last play-off spot, it would mean that it was increasingly unlikely that they would make the top six when the final reckoning was made at the end of round twenty-seven.

Saints were big favourites in the bookies eyes as they start to find their best form at the right end of the season.

With the league leader’s trophy looking like it was a step too far for Leigh Leopards in what has turned into an astounding season for them, tonight’s game against a St Helens side with their eyes on the top of the table, was a chance for the fourth placed side to move two points closer to securing a lofty play-off place.

Leigh won both games so far in 2023 against the World Champions, the league game at the LSV and the Challenge Cup semi-final which saw them make their victorious trip to Wembley Stadium on the 12th of August.

St Helens were favourites going into the game with a twelve-point handicap on the coupon as they looked to continue their improvement in form as the competition entered its final stages and they looked to peak just in time for the Old Trafford Grand Final.

The unpredictable nature of both Wakefield Trinity and St Helens throughout 2023 meant that today’s meeting at the Be Well Support Stadium was a bit of a lottery for those trying to make a prediction about the outcome.

A win by more than ten points for the home side would see them off the bottom of the table and above the Castleford Tigers in the scramble to avoid relegation, while a seventy-five-point win for Saints (not beyond the realms of possibility) would move the visitors into top spot in the league, quashing all thoughts of their very poor start to the season.

Saints were the bookies favourites with Wakefield given a sixteen-point start on the handicap coupon, but it would be a brave person who would write off a Trinity side still frantically scrambling to maintain their Super League status.

St Helens and Huddersfield Giants took advantage of not being involved in the Challenge Cup final to play their postponed round one fixture which wasn´t played to allow Saints to travel to Australia and become World Club Champions.

A win for St Helens by six or more points would lift them above yesterday’s Challenge Cup winners Leigh Leopards and into third spot, but a win for the Giants would benefit them more as if they could register a victory by twenty points or more, then they would move up to seventh spot and the fringes of the play off places, a win of any margin would see them into eighth.

Saints were the favourites with the bookies, and it was the Giants who were given an eight-point start on the coupon for the Sunday tea-time kick off.

In a repeat of last year’s Women’s Challenge Cup Final, Leeds Rhinos and St Helens met in the first time that the Final had been staged at Wembley Stadium, the Rhinos hoping to overcome the disappointment of an 18-8 loss fifteen months ago.

Saints are currently second in the Group 1 table with the Rhinos in third spot and when the sides last met at the end of May it was the Saints who were again winners by a 38-18 scoreline.

Saints were the favourites to record a third consecutive Final win and record their seventh victory, while the Rhinos are the second most successful side in the competition, looking for their third win and their first since 2019.

There was nothing to choose between these two sides in 2023, the aggregate over the two games played so far being 37-37 as Leeds Rhinos travelled to the Totally Wicked Stadium to take on St Helens.

It was a weakened Saints side who had been dominating the headlines during the week after the injuries that they picked up in losing their semi-final against the Leigh Leopards against a Rhinos side who needed the win to keep alive their hopes of a play-off place in seven rounds time.

Saints were slight favourites but there was every chance that this would be a classic between two sides who had been almost inseparable throughout the season.

All week, the talk had been whether the Leigh Leopards could make the first final of the season, and their first Challenge Cup final since they beat Leeds in the 1971 final, that being their first final since 1921, by beating the Super League Champions St Helens at the Halliwell-Jones.

Leigh won the only encounter of 2023 by 20-12 but that was back in round four when Saints were suffering a massive World Club Challenge hangover and the bookies made them slight favourites for the win and progress to the final as Leigh were given a six-point start on the handicap coupon.

Leigh brought a massive and vociferous support to Warrington, their fans full of hope and expectation that they would be the ones partying come the final whistle.

It was Leigh’s first semi-final since 1987 when they lost to St Helens by 14-8, the majority of the crowd hoping for a better outcome thirty-six years on.

Cup semi-final weekend got underway with the first game of two for St Helens as their women’s side had the toughest of challenges against a league leading York Valkyrie side who are unbeaten so far in 2023 after six rounds of the league tournament.

The weather was likely to be a leveller, or at lead an additional variable in an already complex game as York named the same side which drew with the Leeds Rhinos last weekend.

York had won the earlier game in 2023 by some margin but this was likely to be a much tougher encounter for them with Saints desperate for a Wembley appearance as they look to make it three consecutive tournament wins.

A wet Halliwell-Jones Stadium welcomed the two sides onto the field.

As St Helens climb the Super League table after a poor start to the season, the Warrington Wolves are tumbling in the opposite direction on the back of five losses in their least six outings, most recently against struggling sides from over the Pennines in the Castleford Tigers and Leeds Rhinos.

A place in the top three was up for grabs for the winners, Saints with a chance to jump ahead of the Wolves, the Wolves seeking to get closer to the Catalans Dragons ahead of their game tomorrow against Huddersfield.

Recent poor form from the hosts meant that the bookies had installed the visitors as favourites, handicapping their eight points on the coupon.

Just five days after the two sides met in the quarter finals of the Challenge Cup, Hull FC and St Helens were thrown together again by the vagaries of the fixture computer for a round sixteen Super League match with the Black & Whites looking for revenge and hoping to keep thirteen players on the field beyond half time.

The home side were obviously without the services of Griffin after he received a seven-game suspension for what he said to the referee after the half time hooter last weekend, but coach Tony Smith made several other changes to his side as they looked for a reversal.

Saints were without the services of injured Percival and Makinson who were replace by Hopoate and Bennison.

FC came into the game on the back of a sixteen-game losing streak against the Saints, their last win coming back in August 2017, and the bookies had the visitors down as favourites to take the points and lift themselves up into third spot, just two behind the joint league leaders.

Women’s Super League had a lunchtime kick off at the Totally Wicked Stadium where fourth placed Group One side St Helens had a repeat of Friday night´s men’s fixture as they took on a Wigan Warriors side in second place and chasing down an unbeaten York Valkyrie at the top of the table.

Saints lost their opening round match to the league leaders but then beat the Leeds Rhinos in the second-round while Wigan drew with Warrington in their opening match, beating the Huddersfield Giants by ten points in round two.

There was little to choose between the two sides for this local derby match and it looked like an even encounter on paper.

Show me a true rugby league supporter who says that they don’t love a Saints versus Wigan derby, and I’ll show you a liar.

Whether you’re a Warrior or a Saint and hoping that your side will win the most important bragging rights, or a neutral who just likes to see two of the best sides in the game batter one another for the two points.

Wigan won when the two sides met back on Good Friday, but Saints have shown a marked improvement since then and a win today would lift the home side above their arch enemy and into third place in the table, two points behind the league leaders Catalans and Warrington.

Saints have won four on the bounce, while Wigan got thumped last time out against the Catalans Dragons at the Magic Weekend, and as a result the bookies were giving the Red Vee an eight-point handicap on the coupon.