second is the first of the losers...I'll be gutted if we get beat...then I'll move on...HOW GOOD WILL IT BE IF WE DO WIN!

Everyone connected with Leeds wants this so badly this weekend. I think all the boys recognise that despite all the GFs they still haven't been able to pick the CC up.

For that reason, I think it could go one of two ways either we'll be too "up for it" and lose a bit of composure when it comes to the big plays. Or we will click into play off mode as we have done the last few years and pour everything into the game.

The backend of last year was similar to the things that are happening at Leeds now. Minus the CC of course. Everything on the field has seemed to raise in terms of intensity. Although we've played against two teams who haven't really turned up I think Leeds have viewed this as the business end now and this is the time to start upping things a bit.

Can't really sum up how I feel this weekend. 19 and I have seen us lift 4 GFs, 2 league leaders, 2 WCC but I've never been to Wembley and never seen us lift this trophy. I remember walking out of Cardiff in 2003 and been gutted. I think that might play a big part in the boys' motivation this weekend. They've tasted everything and this is the one we want this year, that has been obvious from the start of the year when it seemed they were all geared towards completeing their collection.

Safe journey Wires, I just hope we can click into gear and bring this one home.

True - I don't know how you managed to get past the mighty Featherstone, Huddersfield, Bradford and Catalans against all odds



Good luck by the way, Wire for a day. Can't help but think playing a champion team in the cup (unlike last year) will be your downfall on Saturday - hope I'm wrong.

Yes it does matter a great deal but it’s not the end of the world if we lose.

Last year I was too nervous to enjoy the build-up to the game. It wasn’t nervous excitement; it was the sort of nerves you get before your driving test or when you think the school bully might be waiting outside the gates to give you a kicking. It was brilliant afterwards but I felt drained and I was totally spent because I’d been so tense for preceding 10 hours.

So this year I’m determined to enjoy the whole day and not get too worked up about the result even if it doesn’t go our way. That said, if we blow a big lead, suffer a heartbreaking late loss or have some horrendous decisions go against us, it’ll be impossible not to be devastated at the end.

Like Ian77 said though, I’m determined to enjoy Sunday and go out for an all day party with my mates, irrespective of whether we’ve won or not. The homecoming parade would be very hollow without the cup though and I’m sure most of the players and more seasoned fans might feel a little awkward about it.

Thanks for the 'damning by faint praise'. Not many teams play three out of four qualifying rounds in the CC against Super League opposition, and none of these matches on our home ground. Against Cats we delivered where similarly-favoured Pies did not a few years ago.

Quite. Saints had such a tough run to the semis this season.

Ill second that!!

I actually think now Peacock and Burgess is out, that the psychology of this works out well for us (as in how much their players want it, how much the fans want it is irrelevant). They have all had lots of success in Super League but they haven't won the Challenge Cup, the only player on Saturday who's left from the 1999 win is going to be captaining us instead.

This is one they have wanted for a long time, and I'm sure when they beat Saints in the semi part of them felt like the job was nearly done, they just needed to put in a professional performance and they would beat us and achieve what they had been wanting for so long. But now Peacock and Burgess are out it will have got them cacking it, in many ways we're the team with less to lose as we haven't been a great team with the CC evading us, like it has them.

Imagine if we got to the Grand Final this year and knew it was going to be against Wigan, I would be excited thinking, this is something we've not done before, and this is a team we should (no guarantees) beat, we have beaten them a lot of times before. But if we then lost Morley and Westwood before the game, I'd be thinking uh-oh, we're likely to blow it AGAIN having gone so close.

I think if I had to place the mortgage either way on this one I would find it hard to call, I would probably put it on us now.

Or it could go the other way and they'll think we've got to do the job now for JP and Biffa.