Leeds aren't good enough. Wigan by plenty.

Regards, Andy G

If you ignore the period form the late 80's - 95 when Wigan and Leeds were the only fully professional outfits, Wigan have still won far more Challenge Cups and Championships than anyone else.

Silly rules but incorrect non the less.

Well, if we ignore that period, I make it 12 Championships for Wigan, the same as Stains. And I suspect the same is true for the Challenge Cup, for both us and St Helens.

Fair enough. Still not a bad old history though.

I don't see why people are getting upset.

The key is that form wise we are probably the weakest of the 4. You could maybe argue that talent wise we are too. Form counts for very little on the day.

This team has proven timer & time again that when it matters they can put in a performance which is greater than the sum of their parts. They no how to dig that little bit deeper for those big occassions. I don't think any team would underestimate us

No one should be bothered if Wigan fans think Leeds is the 'easier' draw, its not going to have any baring on what actually happens. I can understand in some ways why they may say that as we are the least consistent of the 4 performance wise but we know that if the good Leeds turn up on the day, the one that showed up in the playoffs last year and against Manly, Warrington and Catalans this year, then we have a great chance because playing Leeds when at their best is still one of the toughest tasks in RL. If its the version of the Rhinos that played Hull and Bradford and Saints this year then we'll lose.
And of the course the biggest x factor is injuries, if either side is missing a Sinfield, McGuire, Tomkins or Tommy Leuluai on the day then that could prove the difference.

Run up to the semi finals btw....
=#0040FFLEEDS/=#FF0000WIGAN
- =#0040FFWAKEY (H) 18th June (are game in hand from WCC, played 2 days after the Exiles game so who knows what are line up might be, Wigan don't have to play that week)
- =#0040FFCASTLEFORD (H) / =#FF4000WIDNES (H)
- =#0040FFLONDON (A) / =#FF4000BRADFORD (H)
- =#0040FFHULL (H) / =#FF4000WAKEY (A) (the second Exiles game takes place just 2 days before on the Wednesday so again team line ups might change)

Nothing too tough for Wigan, perhaps Bradford could be slighty tricky. Think we should have enough to beat Wakey even though we'll have a few who play the Exiles game, and the Cas and London games should be straight forward enough. The Hull one 2 days after the 2nd Exiles game and just a week before the semi has banana skin written over it a bit.

For all Leeds' noted ability to go far in the comp making numerous semi-finals and finals it has to be said they havn't converted those opportunities into trophy success of late winning one Challenge Cup over the most recent thirty three seasons it has been contested.

Challenge Cup Final Wins 1978/9 to date:

11 - Wigan
7 - St Helens
3 - Widnes
2 - Bradford, Hull, Warrington
1 - Castleford, Featherstone, Halifax, Hull KR, Leeds, Sheffield

Challenge Cup Final Losses 1978/9 to date:

7 - Leeds
4 - Hull, St Helens
3 - Bradford, Wigan
2 - Huddersfield, Hull KR, Widnes
1 - Castleford, Halifax, Les Catalans, London, Wakefield, Warrington

Forget form, forget even this being the missing domestic piece of silverwear for this group of otherwise Champion players, Leeds winning the Challenge Cup would be the biggest shock since Krakatau erupted in 1883.

Gareth - what your suggesting as I read it - if the game was played now Wigan would win but in nine weeks time Leeds will be better than now and will rise to the job and make it a better contest - that cannot be guaranteed as we have seen in the past.

I would rather Leeds beat Wigan in the Semi - Good luck. Friday night was great, saw some superb rugby skills and the atmosphere and the camaradery before and after the game was what rugby league is all about and for those who went to the game hope you enjoyed visiting the LSV. Proud to be a Leyther.

Maybe not by plenty, but you would be foolish to make them anything other than favourites. You're not foolish, are you BB?

Logical favourites Andy.

I try to keep my foolish behaviour to a minimum. Or brushed under the carpet at least.

Where does declaring a pre-determined Leeds defeat stand on the Fools Chart? I hope that trip to Beachy Head did its trick.

---------------

not that old chestnut again

-think a few ppl will be eating humble pie come wembley and grand final day

When i was a boy just after 1957final leeds had won 7 CCs Huddersfield were next with 6 then Wigan came up a bit,but after the 1978 cup win Leeds had 10 Wigan on 8.It was that MID 80s 90s period that gave them the runaway

Giveover. Let's assume that football introduce a salary cap tomorrow, does that means that all United's 19 league titles are consigned to the rubbish bin, or liverpool's 18 or whatever. What absolute jealous tosh.

i don't suppose you cynically cheated the cap to stay up either

Nobody "earns" arrogance. Arrogance is what happens when people act like @r$holes.

No offence taken. I think we're both agreed that without Davy they will be up the proverbial creek without a paddle. Considering what he's done for them, you would think the Huddersfield would get behind the team and give them some support. Based on their current form, they certainly deserve some.

Did Liverpool and Man united win these titles whilst other clubs weren't professional like?

Exactly

Given it's 'entirely logical' to regard Leeds as underdogs on the basis of 2012 so far, predicting they will lose to either Wigan or the winners of the other semi is hardly irrational. Besides, Beachy Head was full of the local Man Utd supporters clubs yesterday.

All I am saying is it'a a folly to describe Leeds as the "weakest" of the remaining tems based solely upon league placings right now because of Leeds recent history (not least of which Warrington choosing us for similar reasons last year) and because the game won't be played for over two months.

The game itself will be decided by which of these two teams performs better on the day not any "logic" applied by fans on here.

It astonishes me that any fans, let lone Leeds fans would write this team off. It shouldn't surprise me because many have been doing it for years. You'll be right one of these days.A million monkeys and a million typewriters etc.

They've been right in the last two Cup finals G1, unless those don't count for some reason?

Not when discussing a CC Semi because Leeds have won the last two to reach those finals. And we're talking about a semi after all. Logical

Which is why my rather flawed stat excluded those years. Anyway, back to the match - I would have preferred to play Udds in the semi as they are far more likely to implode over the next 9 weeks, as they did last season, than are Leeds or Wire.