It would be lucky round thirteen for either the Warrington Wolves or St Helens, but the smart money was on St Helens extending their lead at the top of the table against a Warrington side who are struggling for any kind of consistency as new coach Daryl Powell continues to find his feet.

The visitors were unchanged from the side which beat Hull FC last time out while the Wolves welcomed back Gareth Widdop to the side who were thrashed by the Catalans Dragons in the south of France in the last round.

The home side had an eight-point start on the handicap coupon, but many pundits thought that the margin would be somewhat higher than that.

If Friday the thirteenth didn´t give Hull FC a sense of foreboding, then meeting St Helens the week after they were eliminated from the Challenge Cup at the semi-final stage to archrivals Wigan Warriors would have filled them with fear as they braced themselves for the inevitable backlash.

Despite Saints needing the points to extend their lead at the top to two points, the bookies only gave the Airlie Birds a ten-point start in the handicap coupon, recognising that there was plenty of motivation for the visitors to regain the fourth spot that they gave up last night to the Giants and stay in touch with the top two.

There was no denying that it was an intriguing fixture on paper but always with a chance that Saints would run away with it as they looked to get last weekend out of their systems.

The luck of the draw threw together Super League´s top two sides in a semi-final encounter of the highest calibre as St Helens faced the Wigan Warriors for a place in the Challenge Cup final at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at the end of the month.

Saints won the Super League encounter earlier in the season on Good Friday, but this was the Challenge Cup, and you can never write off Wigan in the cup, even if the bookies had made Saints the clear favourites and given Wigan an eight-point start on the handicap coupon.

The bookies believed that Saints were a shoe-in for the first final berth, it would take a miracle for Wigan to progress.

The Women’s Challenge Cup Final, the first game of a superb Elland Road triple header, saw the top two female sides in the country up against one another as St Helens faced the Leeds Rhinos for the first silverware of the season.

The game was played out in front of the BBC TV cameras and shown live to the nation on BBC2 and what a great advert for the game, and specifically the women´s game it was.

Saints knocked the Rhinos out at the semi-final stage last season before going on to beat York in the final and the Rhinos were runners up to Saints in the Women´s Super League last season.

It really was a match between the two best and most successful sides in the Women´s game.

Castleford's Mend-A-Hose Jungle played host to a clash between two widely different teams: a home club still struggling to find any consistent form in its 'new era' – despite getting two of their three wins this season over the Easter weekend - and the visiting champions St Helens, who have lost just one game in defence of their title so far and that a surprise loss to basement club Toulouse Olympique.

Following that busy schedule, Saints coach Kristian Wolf names an unfamiliar line-up after the strains of the Easter schedule, with seven young players moving up from the reserves where they regularly play together.

The Tigers' Lee Radford resisted the temptation to make whole-sale changes, but injury meant James Clare started at full-back while youngster Jason Qareqare had his first start of the year on the left wing.

Top were taking on second in the final Rivals round game in front of a full house at the Totally Wicked Stadium as the Champions St Helens took on one of the major challengers to their crowd, the arch enemy, Wigan Warriors.

Whoever picked up the two points today would be two points clear at the top of the league ahead of Easter Monday´s clashes but Wigan would have to do it without Zak Hardaker who was dropped, for disciplinary reasons, by coach Peet while Saints were without the injured Will Hopoate.

Kristian Woolf knew that a win this afternoon would be a big boost for St Helens but if Wigan could pick up the points in the oppositions lair, then they would be flying high.

With Hull KR, St Helens and the Huddersfield Giants already confirmed for the 2022 Challenge Cup Semi-Final double-header at Elland Road, all that remained was for Wakefield Trinity and Wigan Warriors to do battle for the final spot in Sunday afternoon´s game at Belle Vue.

Trinity were missing a handful of stars including superstar winger Tom Johnstone, Jacob Miller and David Fifita but Wigan were close to full strength for this crucial cup tie.

The bookies favoured the nineteen-time cup winners from Wigan as they game Wakefield an eight-point start on the handicap coupon, but most pundits were struggling to choose between the two sides, especially after a recent great run of games from Trinity which has seen them into the top half of the table and eliminating Warrington in the previous round of the cup.

When Saints were drawn away at the Catalans Dragons in the quarter finals of the 2022 Challenge Cup, most people saw the repeat of last season’s Grand Final as likely being the producer of the eventual winner of the competition.

The Dragons had May, Julien and Romano all starting as changes from the side which lost in to the Saints in round one, while for Saints only difference was the swapping of Sironen for Mata´utia in the starting thirteen with Norman being brought in on the bench.

Saints, of course won last year´s season culminating Old Trafford meeting for the games ultimate prize, and the two sides also met for the opening match of the season which Saints won more comfortably by 28-8, but this was a meeting in the south of France and in front of a notoriously hostile and partisan home crowd.

If there was one certainty in round seven of Super League 2022 it was that the Leeds Rhinos would lose to St Helens, the only real issue being how many points the Rhinos would ship in and whether they would be able to get over the whitewash themselves.

The home side were without the injured Aidan Sezer so Liam Sutcliffe was in the halves alongside Blake Austin while Saints were without Alex Walmsley but there was celebration as James Roby made his 500th career appearance.

In our pre-match Twitter poll, no-one was predicting a Leeds win, most people predicting that Saints would win by 1 to 24 points, and the bookies were giving the Rhinos a fourteen-point start on the coupon.

There were whoops of joy in Whitehaven when they were drawn at home in the Betfred Challenge Cup against the cup holders St Helens, tempered by the knowledge that they had a snowball´s chance in hell of progressing through to the quarter finals.

Despite their being twenty places between them in the league structure, St Helens reacted to last weeks defeat in Toulouse by putting out a very strong side to make sure that there were no mistakes in their quest for a place at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and the showpiece final.

Whitehaven were given a fifty-four point start on the coupon and many of the five thousand of so packed into the Recreation Ground were hoping that their Marras side would be able to put up more of a fight or the most optimistic among them even dare to hope for one of the biggest cup upsets of all time.

While the all-conquering St Helens side came into the game at the top of the Super League 2022 pile, their challengers in tonight´s televised round five game, the Warrington Wolves, knew that an unlikely win by more than thirty-four points would see them assume the top position while a win of fourteen points or more would lift them into second spot.

The two sides emerged into the rain, perhaps the levelling variable that Daryl Powell´s men needed to overcome the odds and pick up a win.

Our pre-match Twitter Poll had 90% of people predicting a St Helens win and the bookies agreed giving the Wolves a twelve-point start on the coupon.

It was a bittersweet occasion at the MKM Stadium as St Helens were in town for the first Steve Prescott Trophy match of the season against a Hull FC side in a city which was grieving the passing of league legend Johnny Whiteley MBE, one of the cities most famous sons.

Channel 4 were in attendance for their second Super League Saturday lunchtime broadcast, looking to replicate the great viewing figures which they achieved for last week´s season opener.

FC were without the services of suspended Andre Savelio and Jake Connor while Saints were missing Will Hopoate who hadn´t recovered from a rib injury suffered last time out, and he was replaced by Josh Simm.

One hundred and twenty-three days since the Super League 2021 Grand Final saw St Helens narrowly beat the Catalans Dragons to lift the trophy, last season´s top two sides signalled the start of the 2022 season with the season opener at the Totally Wicked Stadium.

Many pundits have predicted that it will be these two sides, last years Minor Premiers and Grand Final winners, sharing the honours again in Super League XXVII and this fixture would be the pick of any weekend in the top flight of the competition, a win would give the victors a great boost at the start of the season.

St Helens had one eye on the treble as they came into the Grand Final to take on a Leeds Rhinos side who had home advantage and were defending champions after beating the Castleford Tigers in the last Grand Final in 2019.

Saints were big favourites after a season which has seen them go unbeaten through the play-offs and score one hundred and fifty-eight points while conceding only six and lifting the League Leaders Trophy.

It was the twenty-fourth Super League Grand Final at Old Trafford as the minor premiers, Catalans Dragons, took on the defending champions St Helens with eighty minutes separating both teams from glory.

It was the final that it should have been, the top two sides in the league facing off against one another but most neutrals would be ‘Dragons for a Day’ in the hope that there would be a new name on the trophy in 2021.

The Dragons won two out of the three games that the sides have played, including that memorable last second win at the Magic Weekend, but the bookies had made the Saints the favourites for the win as they expected Grand Final experience to count.

A place at Old Trafford, to take on minor premiers the Catalans Dragons, was on offer for the winners of tonight’s games between the defending Champions St Helens and the Leeds Rhinos.

Saints ended the regular season in second spot and were strong favourites to beat a Leeds side who had spent the season chasing a play-off place and who only qualified in sixth spot after a good run at the end of the season.

Few thought the Rhinos could hold back the Saints tide.

The Women’s Super League Final will be contested by the familiar names of Ste Helens and Leeds Rhinos in two weeks’ time after a double header of contrasting semi-finals.

Saint Helens Ladies marched into the Women’s Super League Grand Final with a totally dominant display in the first match of a televised semi-final double header at their own Totally Wicked Stadium.

As if there wasn’t enough to play for in a Saints – Leeds game, there was added incentive for both sides as they knew that a win would help them achieve one of their immediate goals, Saints knowing that a win would guarantee them runners up spot, and the Rhinos in the full knowledge that win would guarantee their inclusion in the play-offs.

Saints had Joe Batchelor in the starting line-up for the injured Leeds bound James Bentley, meanwhile the Rhinos were without James Donaldson who withdrew today through illness and Corey Johnson was named on the bench for his first game since September 2019.

Saints were the bookies favourites for the win with the Rhinos being given a twelve-point start on the coupon.

With many tasty matches vying for the game of the Magic Weekend, you could be forgiven for anticipating some of the fixtures with more relish than the top of the table tussle between the Catalans Dragons and St Helens, but with the minor premiership still in the balance the second fixture of Saturday afternoon could go a long way to answering the big question.

Saints made just one change from the side that beat the Warrington Wolves last weekend with Kyle Amor coming onto the bench in place of Louis McCarthy-Scarsbrook as the defending Super League champions looked to move within a whisker of the Dragons point percentage.

With both sides having won their last three outings, the bookies made Saints the slight favourites for the win and to stop the Dragons from clinching the League Leaders Trophy for the first time in their history in what could well be a Grand Final dress rehearsal.