So the reigning double winners and leeds natural predators roll into town.

Robbie burrow injured.....may god have mercy on us all.

Leeds-Wigan games tend to be a lottery. Wasn't it 2 wins each last season?

You need to cheer up lad. Or are you miffed that this Sintellins team won't be doing the double this season?

Let's enjoy the cup win for a little while. McD can worry about Wigan. Thought the tactics of Kev starting at hooker and switching with Robbie were spot on

its funny really between us, one team always seems to play well and the other doesn't. I just hope both teams play well because this is the real measuring stick for the new Wigan team.

The results between these two in the regular season over the last few years have given no indication at all as to what will happen in the Challenge Cup and Playoffs.

I just hope it will be a cracker of a game decided by the players rather than the official. I doubt it though as games between us and you seem to attract controversy.

I'll bet you weren't moaning about the referees interventions at Wembley in 2011

But probably was at the lack of intervention at Huddersfield 2012.

I hope Clarkson gets to play the last 8 minutes again.

This game might highlight the two coaches different approaches. Shaun Wane has repeatedly shown his willingness to throw a youngster in and Wigan have benefitted from having the largest squad in the league full of names that most opposition fans don't recognise, but have gained experience from being given their opportunity by Wane. By contrast Brian McDermott prefers to rely on a tried and trusted smaller pool of players. I'm not saying that either one is right as Wane has made his mistakes (Jack Murphy in the 2012 playoff anyone?) but has mostly got it right with the youngsters (Burgess, Williams, Hampshire, Powell, Crosby, Sutton, Manfredi) and his signings have tended to be speculative (Green, Taylor, Sarginson, Clubb, Smith and Bateman - though most rugby league followers would recognise Taylor and Bateman as class players).

Brian McDermott's record speaks for itself really, though I fancy that he'd want the Challenge Cup in the trophy room. Maybe the draw tonight will be kinder than the last few years (Wigan certainly benefitted last season)

Whether we win or lose on Friday is immaterial, I think that Leeds and Wigan will contest the major honours this season. Wigan at the moment seem to be running into form as Bowen is improving with every game and Tomkins may not be missed as much as I, for one, feared.

I'm relieved that Burrow will be missing and that probably more than compensates for Charnley, Flower and Pettybourne. Let's hope it's a decent game. I suspect that we may see a lot more of each other before (possibly) Old Trafford in any case.

I'd go with..
Hardaker
Briscoe
Watkins
Moon
Hall
Sutcliffe
McGuire
JP
Sinfield
Singleton
Ablett
Achurch
Delaney

Leuleui
Kirke
Clarkson
R.Ward

Looking forward to this game which I may attend for no other reason that the completion of this weekend's round of SL fixtures signal the start of the off-season for me as I switch my attention to proper summer sports like cricket and tennis. There's also the small matter of a soccer World Cup too. The only RL I'll be watching is a few games of NRL and the Origin series.

I no longer participate in "summer rugby" as I'm not a prisoner of Sky Sports scheduling during their soccer off-season. That's all summer rugby is... 10 meaningless rounds of SL and a meaningless weekend of fixtures in Manchester to spread the gospel according to mediocrity and utter pointlessness. Such a shame that Sky haven't got any rights to broadcast the FIFA World Cup. Hardly anyone will be watching their channels for the best part of two months during the months of June and July.

I'll be back in late August in time for when the meaningful fixtures return

Do you PROMISE!!!

Yes I'm sure the nation will be gripped on the evenings of Friday the 21st and Saturday the 22nd of June when the 7pm kick-offs of Honduras vs Ecuador and Nigeria vs Bosnia and Herzegovina take over the main tv channels.

Personally looking forward to a cosy Sunday when at 4pm we have the powerhouses of South Korea and Algeria battling it out, one match I'm sure will have a massive bearing on how the tournament pans out.

For this game:

BJB

Briscoe
Watkins
Moon
Hall

Hardaker
McGuire

Peacock
Sinfield
Leuluai
Ablett
Delaney
Singleton

Kirke
Bailey
Achurch
Ward/Sutcliffe

Or even Friday 20th June.


Or even Saturday 21st June.


Kick off is 11pm UK time for that game but I'm sure you can't wait for the utterly meaningless Bradford V Hull KR on Sky instead. I'll be instead watching Switzerland V France along with the global millions around the world.


Kick off is 11pm UK time for that game but I'm sure you can't wait for the utterly meaningless Catalans V Hull on Sky instead. I'll be instead watching Argentina and Messi along with the global millions around the world.


Would that be the 23rd June or the 22nd? Take a deep breath before you commit to an answer.


That'll be 8pm UK time though there's also Belgium V Russia at 5pm UK time. Sky's mouthwatering fixture to be broadcast that Sunday has yet to be decided. Given their appalling recent selection form guide, it'll probably be London away at Huddersfield

Ah yes , the fifa world cup , will tune in around week 3 , might just get interesting around then , the greatest show on earth , yeah really

Ahh yes, so excited by the thought of the 25th ranked team in the world playing the 56th ranked team I messed up my dates and times.

Also the thought of watching Messi and Argentina play the might of Iran leaves me giddy with excitement. It might be as interesting as when Portugal beat North Korea 7-0 in the last World Cup.

Interesting to note you use the term "watching along with the global millions around the world". Never had you down as a sheep who would use the number of how many other people watched/liked/attended something to try strengthen your case. Perhaps you might want to tell us what it is about the Algerian midfield that you can't wait to watch, or the Korean defence, or the style of play from Iran? Surely a more suitable argument for a man like yourself rather than "well, loads of others will be watching too."

I'm looking forward to seeing how wigan's less heralded but supremley slick and effective backline matches up against leeds overhyped band of supposed 'superstars'.

If you want to remain committed to some weird religious summer school cult making flowers with Billy Childress, that's entirely up to you.

Most of the world's best players worth watching will be there. Sky's viewing figures should make interesting reading this summer, that's for sure.


I'd rather watch Algeria, South Korea or Iran than England. Wasn't it Algeria who taught England a technical lesson in the previous World Cup?

Top of my "give them a huge swerve" list (find something better to do than watch them) during the World Cup?
1. England
2. Italy
3. Daylight

Yes, but this is a team game and just about everyone of those best players play much better in their club sides, so why watch them not at their best against some poor teams that only qualify due to geographical reasons and not because they truly are one of the best 32 teams in the world,



Will they?
World Cup attracts big numbers shocker! Because gullible people mistakenly believe they'll see these world class players perform at their best, ridiculous notion given the extreme heat most games will be played in. Most games will be contested at a walking pace I'm afraid.



That you describe that as a technical lesson is laughable, do you actually know anything about football or only watching "because others around the world are."
Nothing technical about that particular game, it was just two rubbish teams.

Still, at least the global millions around the world got to see some of the best players in the world in that match......Emile Heskey, Gareth Barry, Shaun Wright Phillips, Jamie Carragher, David James to name but a few.



So you'd rather watch Algeria or Iran for a possible technical masterclass, but avoid the Italians. All you've proven is that you're going to (or claiming to just for usage on here) watch a sport you're not to well up on just because the millions around the world are.

william eve did this with the rl world cup, said he'd be avoiding england games as much as possible.

Basically, what the majority on here will most likely be watching, WE slags off and says he'll be giving it a wide birth.

If he was brazilian he'd be claiming he was going to avoid them as much as possible. To hell with their beach football, why watch a team who's sole purpose is skills and tricks? I'd rather watch a team adept on the finer points of tactical play and results orientated, like Italy!

The only real suprise is that, with us being english and all, he's not lavished praise on the german, or argentina teams.

How many user names have you used this week?

I noticed your snake eater persona made an appearance on Redvee last week.

Are you also Chief Stinkwort?

It's always amusing to see you resort to guessing alleged usernames in response to a post.

The only surprise is that you haven't made biazarre references to wearing lycra at the gym.