Ninth played host to fifth as an embattled Warrington Wolves looked to return to winning ways against a Hull FC side seeking to cement their top five spot and establish some breathing space ahead of the red side of the city.

The Wolves haven´t won a game since the 23^rd April, just over two months ago, when the beat the Huddersfield Giants having lost the previous week against tonight´s opposition but it was the home side who were favourites for the win with the bookies, the Airlie Birds getting a six point start on the coupon.

The most nervous man in the house was Wolves coach Daryl Powell who knew that he was living on borrowed time, if not with the board, then definitely with the disgruntled fans.

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.

In a game which was dogged with apathy from some clubs, and degraded by player withdrawals, England took to the field to take on an International All-Stars side as they built up for their World Cup Campaign at the end of the current domestic season.

Shaun Wane got to pick the cream of the available fit players but sprang several surprises, mostly through omission, while plenty of withdrawals for All-Stars coach Ellery Hanley left him with a number of selection headaches, but he was still able to select a strong looking side who on paper, who should have given the English a good run for their money.

England were favourites with the bookies, but Wane would remember that his side were beaten by 26-24 in his first game in charge at this time last year.

The first game of a double-header from the Halliwell-Jones Stadium saw the England Ladies side take on the French side as both teams looked for positives in their build up to the World Cup in the Autumn.

England came into the game on the back of a commanding 32-6 win over Wales at Cross Keys last Sunday but it was the first outing for the French side since they lost to England by 40-4 last October at the Stade Gilbert Brutus in Perpignan.

Most eyes were on Courtney Winfield-Hill, the thirty-five year old Australian cricketer and Leeds Rhinos scrum half who was making her debut in an England jersey alongside fellow debutant Keara Bennett.

England Ladies have never lost to France and the strong expectation was that they would continue that winning run.

The Monday evening televised Premier Sports game between the top two in the Championship saw Featherstone Rovers travel to Leigh Centurions for an encounter which had more of a game of the season feel to it, than just a boring old game of the round.

The Centurions only league loss of the season was the round two defeat away at Featherstone, while it was the Centurions who emerged with the Trophy when the two sides met in the 1895 Cup Final a couple of short weeks ago.

Honours shared so far in 2022 but this game would determine who sat at the top of the league at the end of round fifteen, and who was in pole position to top the table come the end of the season.

The home side were big favourites with the bookies, but despite several injuries it would be a fool that would write off Brian McDermott’s flat cappers from taking home the points.

Round fifteen of the 2022 Betfred Championship held one of the ties of the season as the two favourites for the Million Pound game, Leigh and Featherstone, were thrown together for a game at the Leigh Sports Village with top spot up for grabs.

But we would have to wait until Monday evening and the Premier Sports live game.

The other six ties were played on Sunday afternoon with an early kick off in the Cumbrian derby between Workington Town and Barrow Raiders.

The remainder of the fixtures were three o´clock starts with; Batley against Newcastle, Dewsbury hosting London in a crucial game at the bottom, Whitehaven taking on the Halifax Panthers, York travelling to a beleaguered Widnes and the Bradford Bulls at the Sheffield Eagles.

Wakefield Trinity took on the Wolves as a bottom of the table dogfight took place on Sunday afternoon at Belle Vue with ninth against eleventh and the chance of all change with a home win by twenty-four points or more heralding a position switch to push the Wolves into eleventh spot.

Wakefield won the round six the game in Warrrington back in mid-March by 38-22, and a week later they knocked Warrington out of the Challenge Cup by a score line of 16-12, today they were looking for the treble.

The home side were given a four-point start on the coupon, the bookies struggling to pick a winner but favouring the Wolves based on league position.

It was fourth against fifth as two sides with aspirations of making Old Trafford at the end of the season with Hull FC travelling to the south of France to take on the Catalans Dragons.

A win for the visitors wouldn´t alter their league position but would put some daylight between them and their arch rivals from across the city whereas a win for the Dragons would lift them two places and back into second spot.

Both sides came into the game on the back of defeats after the Dragons lost at home to the Huddersfield Giants and FC were pipped in golden point by strugglers Wakefield Trinity after an enormous fightback.

The Dragons were the favourites for the win, but it promised to be a great battle.

A resurgent Leeds Rhinos travelled to the Huddersfield Giants to take on a side who took little time to dismiss their Challenge Cup disappointment and show that their focus for the 2022 season is now well and truly making the Old Trafford Grand Final in October, while the Rhinos would settle for making the play-offs as they struggle to get out of the bottom half of the table.

Giants coach Ian Watson stuck with Pryce in the half-backs due to the continued unavailability of Fages, and was also without O´Brien and Russell, while Rohan Smith´s Rhinos were without Bentley, Gannon and skipper Kruise Leeming who missed out through illness The home side were slight favourites with the bookies to consolidate their place in the top four, with the Rhinos being given a four-point start on the handicap coupon as they looked to overtake the Tigers and move into seventh place.

It´s that time of year again, the time that Australia goes doolally over the State of Origin and we get to tune in halfway across the globe to for a televisual feast as New South Wales take on Queensland at Sydney´s Accor Stadium at Olympic Park.

The Blues regained the honours last season with a two-one victory over the Maroons to whom they had lost the honour in 2020.

Queensland are currently leading through the ages with twenty-two series wins against New South Wales sixteen as the teams started the forty-first full series in the forty-third year.

The Blues were slight favourites with the bookies, the Maroons getting a four-point start on the handicap coupon, but it really was anyone´s in what promised to be another close series.

It was 9th v 5th in the final match of Magic Weekend Saturday in Newcastle, as Leeds sought to continue their climb into the play-offs and Castleford looked to secure their place in the post-season clashes which decide the title.

After a shakey start to the season, when both teams looked like they would be struggling with the opponents in the day's opening match and looking fearfully at the bottom of the table and possible relegation.

But the Tigers and the Rhinos had both started putting a winning run together in recent weeks and the question at St James's Park was who would continue that run and who would stutter to another loss.

Bradford kicked off the final game of the Jubilee weekend in the Betfred Championship - with  Featherstone expected to win and return to the top of the table.

The Bulls, with just three wins in the last six games, would be happy to reverse last month's 32-18 loss to Rovers.

The hosts had first use of the ball, playing up the slope in the opening 40 minutes and dominating the early part of the game.

And with less than five minutes gone, Bulls prop Muizz Mustapha had to leave the field for a head injury assessment after going clumsily into a defensive tackle.

A busy Jubilee weekend for the Betfred Championship as round fourteen followed within a few days of an action packed round thirteen with twelve of our sides in action on Sunday afternoon, the remaining game between leaders Featherstone Rovers and the Bradford Bulls being scheduled for Monday night in front of the Premier Sports cameras.

Sunday´s games saw Barrow host Widnes, Batley at home to Workington, and Dewsbury face the remaining Cumbrian side as thew welcomed Whitehaven.

Leigh had a tough looking home game against Halifax while the Eagles travelled up the A1 to face Newcastle leaving a long trip up the M1 for London as they went to York.

Five places and ten points separated Wakefield Trinity and Hull FC coming into today’s game and with neither side able to improve their league positions with a win, they were both looking for the points for very different reasons.

Hull FC were looking to cement their place in the top six and pull further away from their Red and White neighbours in seventh spot while Wakefield were looking to make up two points on the Warrington Wolves ahead of them and put another two points between themselves and the relegation spot currently occupied by Toulouse Olympique XIII.

The home side had a six-point start on the handicap, Hull FC the favourites for the win.

Fresh from lifting their twentieth Challenge Cup last weekend in London, the Wigan Warriors travelled to Castleford to take on the Tigers in the knowledge that a big win would see them move above both Huddersfield and Catalans into second spot, and a win of any description would see them up to third.

Lee Radford´s Tigers side were looking to consolidate their position in the top six and put some breathing space between themselves and Hull KR in seventh, however, a heavy loss could see them drop into the bottom half of the table on points difference.

Wigan moved Jai Field into the halves in place of the injured Cade Cust and John Bateman and Morgan Smithies were also missing from the side which triumphed last week.

The home side were without the services of Mamo, Qareqare and Blair but could still field a decent seventeen.

Normally a fixture associated with the play-off places, it was eighth against tenth as the Warrington Wolves hosted the Leeds Rhinos in an important game in the bottom half of the table as both sides looked to maintain a place on the fringes of the top six, the home side knowing that a win would lift them to at least seventh and the Rhinos looking to jump above their hosts into eighth.

Daryl Powell´s Wolves had new loan signing Kyle Amor on the bench in a strong looking line up after almost a fortnight off, while Leeds boss Rohan Smith made an enforced change to an equally rested side which beat Wakefield last time out to accommodate the most recent suspension of James Bentley.

Warrington were the favourites with the bookies, the Rhinos getting an eight-point start on the handicap coupon.

Round Thirteen of the 2022 Betfred Championship was mostly scheduled for the bank holiday Thursday afternoon as the nation celebrated the Royal Platinum Jubilee with a trip to the rugby.

Halifax and Dewsbury had already played on Tuesday evening before the early Thursday kick off saw a basement battle between London and Workington.

The remaining five games were all scheduled to kick off at three o´clock with Barrow at home to Leigh, Newcastle facing Featherstone, Sheffield hosting York and Widnes at home to the Bradford Bulls.

A slight delay meant that Whitehaven and Batley kicked off fifteen minutes late.

Fresh from their stunning AB Sundecks 1895 Trophy win over the Featherstone Rovers, Leigh Centurions travelled up the M6 in a ´jubilant´ mood with the aim of taking two points off an impressive Barrow Raiders side who are still in the top half of the table as the season mid-stage approaches.

The Centurions made several changes from the side which triumphed at the Tottenham Stadium with Brand, Roberts, Hitchcox, Hingano, Amone, Ipape, Nakubuwai, and O´Donnell all named in the starting thirteen.

Barrow too were forced into a handful of changes due to injuries.

Leigh needed a win to have the chance of going top, but more likely maintaining the pressure on Featherstone, while a win for Leigh could lift them into fifth spot should Whitehaven beat the Batley Bulldogs.

The odds were on a Leigh win.

 

London Broncos travelled from Plough Lane in Wimbledon to Derwent Park in Workington in a bid to get their season on track and move out of the bottom two in the Betfred Championship against bottom placed club Workington Town, who were themselves seeking to get their own season underway with a first win.

The hosts' coach Chris Thorman refused to underplay the importance of the game for the side promoted from League 1 last year, but insisted the main thing he was looking for was consistency and performance against the team just above them with a record of one win and one draw.

Too close to call was the opinion of most pundits as the two sides, neck and neck in the Super League, Wigan Warriors and Huddersfield Giants went head-to-head at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the Challenge Cup Final The two sides last met in a Challenge Cup final in the 1919-20 season when it was Huddersfield who emerged as 21-10 victors in a game played in front of 14,000 fans at Headingley in Leeds.

Wigan have lifted the trophy on nineteen occasions, Huddersfield seven times, Wigan´s last win in 2013 but there would be few from West Yorkshire who had witnessed a Huddersfield cup win as they hadn´t lifted the trophy for sixty-nine years.

The bookies had made the Warriors slight favourites but most in the stadium had no idea what the next eighty minutes would deliver.