Thursday night saw top placed Warrington Wolves take on a St Helens side currently languishing in eighth spot after a disappointing start to their 2023 campaign.

Both sides came into the game on the back of losses, Warrington having fallen to the Wigan Warriors last time out while St Helens were well beaten by Hull KR.

The bookies struggled to split the two sides but leaned towards a home win, giving the Wolves a two-point start on the coupon.

Daryl Powell didn´t want to make it consecutive losses for his Wolves side, and Paul Wellens was even keener to avoid a third consecutive loss for Saints for the first time since August 2017.

The stage was set for a belter.

It was a second capacity crowd of the day as third placed Wigan Warriors face their massive Rivals and fifth placed St Helens in one of the games of the round with local bragging rights up for grabs and for the neutral it was a chance to gauge which of these two sides was the forerunner for a Grand Final place.

Wigan were without the injured Jai Field in a major blow but were still slight favourites with the bookies having been given a two point handicap on the coupon.

Saints hadn´t really hit their straps since their World Club Challenge win, but it would be typical of Saints to hit top form in the derby match.

A packed stadium of over twenty-four thousand, and national television audience settled down for what could be a classic encounter.

The opening fixture of round six of Super League pitted fifth placed Huddersfield Giants against sixth placed St Helens as both sides looked for their third win of the season and a chance to end the evening in fourth spot in the table.

The two sides should have met in the opening fixture of 2023 but that game was postponed due to the World Club Challenge commitment of St Helens who were in Australia to face the Penrith Panthers.

Most eyes this week would be on Jake Connor who would make his Giants debut off the bench, and on a St Helens side who have still to for on all cylinders in the current Super League campaign as they looked to justify the bookies favourites tag.

The sides starting the evening sat in ninth and tenth spots in the fledgling Super League 2023 table met at the Totally Wicked Stadium as St Helens took on Hull FC with the prize on offer being a spot in the top half of the table.

Most pundits thought that this would be the game where Saints would restart their domestic campaign after a couple of recent blips against the Rhinos and the Leopards, while few Airlie Birds fans had any optimism about a likely successful outcome of a trip across the Pennines to take on the reigning World Champions.

Hull were given an eighteen-point start on the coupon, it was Saints opportunity to fill their boots and compound Tony Smith´s misery.

Saints returned to the Totally Wicked Stadium for their first home game of 2023 after being crowned as the best side in the World as they faced the Leeds Rhinos in a repeat of the 2022 Grand Final.

Few could conceive of anything other than a Saints win, and most would predict that the margin of victory would be substantial after the Rhinos had started the season with back-to-back losses, Saints despatching the Castleford Tigers with some ease last Sunday.

The bookies favoured Saints and gave the Rhinos a fourteen-point start on the coupon, most observers thinking that this was a little over respectful to Rohan Smith´s side.

Saint Helens - now officially the 'Best Team in the World' after last week's World Club Challenge win over Penrith Panthers Down Under – got down to Super League business in Castleford Tigers' Wheldon Road stadium the Jungle.

What effect the trip to Sydney and back, plus the match against the Australian Premiers, would have on the team was the big question.

One obvious effect was the absence of stand-out hooker James Roby, replaced by new signing Darcy Lussick.

The Tigers went into the tie with a new half-back pairing for the season in Gareth Widdop and former Wakefield scrum half Jacob Miller.

 

It was the battle of the hemispheres, the cream of the NRL against Super League´s top cat as Aussie Champions Penrith Panthers hosted the dominators of the British game St Helens for the World Club Challenge.

Due to COVID this is the first time that the challenge has been played since 2020, when Saints lost out to the Sydney Roosters at the Totally Wicked Stadium.

Saints hadn´t won a WCC since 2007 when they beat the Brisbane Broncos by 18-14 while Penrith were still seeking their first victory after suffering defeats in 1991 and 2004 to Wigan and Bradford.

The home side were big favourites for the win with few pundits giving the Saints any chance of even getting near their opponents.

The reigning Betfred Super League champions, St Helens, will travel to Australia in February 2023 to face NRL champions, Penrith Panthers, for the World Club Challenge in what will be new head coach, Paul Wellens’ first competitive fixture.

The match will take place at the home of the Panthers, the BlueBet Stadium on Saturday 18 February, 2023 (6pm KO local/ 7am UK).

In what will be a first for fans in the UK, the World Club Challenge will be broadcast free-to-air by Channel 4 and will be part of double header by the broadcaster that day with the Betfred Super League clash between Hull KR and Wigan Warriors live at 1pm.

With the build up to the twenty-fifth Super League Grand Final being overshadowed by Saints inedible chicken wings, St Helens and Leeds Rhinos made their way to Old Trafford for another great showdown between the two most successful sides in Super League history.

Whoever lifted the trophy would create a fairy-tale ending.

A Saints victory would signal a record fourth consecutive year as Champions and ensure that their name is writ large in the pages of our great games record books.

A win for the Rhinos would be a sensational end to a season which had seem them staring down the barrel of relegation before the mid-season arrival of inspirational coach Rohan Smith.

Most of the neutrals were backing the underdogs in Blue and Amber, but the bookies fancied the Saints and handicapped them by six points on the coupon.

The Rhinos have never lost to Saints at Old Trafford, the last meeting being in 2011, but that wouldn´t have crossed Kristian Woolf´s mind as he plotted their downfall and sought to make sure that it would be one game too far for the Rhinos resurgence.

The omens didn´t look perfect for, the soon to be departed, Kristian Wolf as his Saints side sought their fourth consecutive Grand Final and a trip to Old Trafford to face their season finale nemesis, the Leeds Rhinos, next weekend.

The Salford Red Devils came into the game on a fantastic run of form, having clinically despatched the Huddersfield Giants last weekend after humiliating them on their own ground.

Paul Rowley´s side were looking for their second trip to a Grand Final, having lost out to today’s opposition in 2019, but would have to do it without the services of star man Brodie Croft.

Despite the loss of Alex Walmsley, the bookies still fancied Saints for the win and had given the Red Devils an eight point start on the handicap coupon, but most supporters and pundits were struggling to call the result for what had all the hallmarks of a classic battle.

The two best sides in the women’s game over recent years were forced into a semi-final battle at Emerald Headingley as Leeds Rhinos took on St Helens for a place against York City Knights in the Grand Final in a fortnights time.

A place in the flagship event in the women’s game was up for grabs in a final which will be played at the Totally Wicked Stadium in St Helens on the 18^th September.

The two sides have met three times this season, Saints taking the honours on two occasions and the Rhinos with one win.

The last meeting was at the start of last month when Saints ran out as 30/22 winners.

Saints finished two points ahead of Leeds in the final league table and were favourites to pick up the win and make progress.

This was the night that St Helens, who´ve led from the front all season, would seal the minor premiership and where better to do it than on the home ground of their arch-rivals the Wigan Warriors.

Wigan needed the win to push the presentation of the trophy on to round twenty-six.

The bookies went with home advantage but favoured Wigan by the narrowest of margins, giving the Saints a narrow two point start in the coupon.

Only two points have separated the two sides on their last two meetings, Saints winning the league game at the Magic weekend by 20-18 while Wigan won the Challenge Cup Semi-final by the same score line in May.

Saints were without Will Hopoate and Tommy Makinson, seeding some doubt in the Saints supporters’ minds, but they had sold out their crowd allocation as their fans believed they would see their side sew up the top spot and end Wigans unbeaten home record in 2022.

It´s been one of those seasons for Hull FC where inconsistency has tarnished a good start and has seen them slip out of the play-off positions and into the bottom half of the table.

A win in Round 23 of Super League was now crucial to see them back within shooting distance of the top six, the bad news was that they were facing the Champions as St Helens came into town.

Hull FC had been given a ten point start on the handicap coupon as the bookies favoured St Helens to collect another win which would put them a step closer to sealing the minor premiership.

A win for FC wouldn´t alter their league position, but it would move them level with the Salford Red Devils and within a point of the Leeds Rhinos in sixth spot.

It would all come down to who was the hungriest for the win.

After suffering a big loss to the Salford Red Devils last time out, Champions and Champions elect St Helens were looking for a win which would move them within touching distance of the minor premiership as they took on the Castleford Tigers at the Totally Wicked Stadium.

The Tigers needed the win themselves to further stake their claim to a top six finish and a shot at the play-offs, a loss would leave them still battling against several other sides for the last couple of play-off places available.

The bookies were in no doubt as to who would be collecting the two points, the Tigers given a fourteen point start on the handicap coupon with Saints expected to win comfortably.

Two sides separated by just over twenty miles down the M62, but by a gulf in difference in recent achievement, met at the AJ Bell Stadium as Salford Red Devils took on St Helens in the final game of an incredible round twenty-one of Super League 2022.

St Helens were the bookies favourites, but comfortably in top position and playing the side in eighth, they perhaps might have expected more than a ten-point deficit on the handicap coupon.

A win for Saints would move them within a point of securing the minor premiership, but a victory for the home side would lift them up two places and into the play-offs.

With Toulouse Olympique XIII going down in a close game with the Salford Red Devils on Saturday, Willie Poching´s Wakefield Trinity side had the ideal opportunity to lift themselves off the bottom of the table.

The only snag was that they had to get a win against the most dominant side in Super League, defending Champions and Champions elect St Helens.

It was top against bottom.

Optimism was in short supply amongst the Wakefield supporters, and the bookies agreed as they gave the home side a fourteen-point start on the coupon, all expectations were that Trinity´s position at the bottom would continue and they would see a worsening of their points difference.

The sides took the field in miserable conditions as the rain fell.

Top against third, St Helens versus Huddersfield Giants, was clearly the game of round nineteen as the Giants looked to close the gap on the league leaders and continue their rebirth under coach Ian Watson as they continue to aim high and show a positive attitude.

Both sides have lost just once in their last eight outings and came into the weekend on the back of good win last weekend at the Magic Weekend.

The side with home advantage were the bookies favourites as they gave away ten points on the handicap coupon to their visitors.

Alex Walmsley was back for the Saints with Agnatius Paasi on the bench after starting last time out against Wigan while the Giants had Will Pryce at full back in place of Tui Lolohea alongside a couple of other changes.

Magic Weekend´s game two on Saturday saw a top of the table clash between St Helens and Wigan Warriors in a game which could go a long way to deciding who lifts the Minor Premiership at the end of the season.

A win for Saints would lift them four points clear of the chasers and into poll position to end the season on top of the pile.

Saints were slight favourites with the bookies, Wigan being given a two-point start on the handicap coupon, mainly due to the omission from the Saints side including Walmsley and Makinson while Wigan looked strong on paper.

It promised to be another close one to entertain the ever-increasing crowd.

Catalans Dragons coach Steve McNamara made a myriad of changes to the side which lost to Castleford by golden point last week.

Saints were without Konrad Hurrell as they also made changes while looking to draw further clear at the top of the table.

The sun was ´cracking the flags´ as last season´s Grand Finalists took to the field with the home side having their work cut out to try and half a seven-game winning run for the Saints, having only won one in the last three themselves.

Saints won both previous meetings between the two sides in 2022 and were favourites to take the two points again tonight in the south of France.

If there was one foregone conclusion from round sixteen of Super League 2022, it was that St Helens would defeat the Rhinos and extend their lead at the top of the table in the Thursday evening fixture broadcast live on Sky Sports.

Both sides made several changes from the sides which lined up a fortnight ago, Saints had a few missing and named Bennison at full back and Sironen in the second row, while Leeds notably had Sezer back in the halves and skipper Leeming at hooker.

The bookies had given the Rhinos a fourteen-point start on the handicap coupon, they had little chance of registering their sixth win of the campaign.