Nothing will top last year. Unless we don't win it for another 36 years.

Very true.

Means everthing. The squad has put everything in to the cup run this year and so have the fans. I don't think there are any other teams who want this as badly as us and Leeds. I cannot call it though.

It matters.

Sunday has the potential to be a huge anti climax and I was around in 1975 so I believe I know what I am talking about.

Winners are grinners they say and never was a truer word spoken.

We can do this.

I think everyone will be gutted. Tony Smith is not going to come out and say if we lose we will feel destroyed and it will effect the rest of our season. This is not the only trophy we have a chance of winning so he will need to make sure the players are prepared to pick themselves up if we do not win on saturday and have a good play off campaign.

This is exactly why we have to think after Wembley and get away from past under achievement.

This is why T.S. was employed.

I think we will win,the fact Leeds are going to up for this game because they have not won it in 11 years.Could work in our favour,they will try too hard and maybe lose that bit of composer.Try throwing the ball around unnecerssy leading to mistakes.If we play like we our normal game not rush things we will win.

Interesting topic.

If we lose on Saturday, I will be crushed. However, as one of our dear departed posters on here once said*, it'll be like crapping your trousers (literally); really annoying, will ruin the rest of your day but after a while, you get over it. As I get older, and I'm only 32 (33 in two weeks) the defeats take less time to get over.

As for the homecoming, well, I'm determined to have a great weekend irrespective of the result. I expect the players will hate it but, if we do lose, we should remember it marks the end of a remarkable journey - back to back CC finals and one loss in the competition in two years. Granted, most teams have a maximum of two but it's still a great run. Win, lose or draw, I'm having an all dayer on Sunday and I'm going to enjoy it - the Leeds Rhinos aren't spoliing that.

Whilst we're on homecomings, I recall Saints were due one a couple of years ago after another GF loss but they couldn't because of a power failure. So it's not just the 'little' teams as the tongue in Sally's cheek would have us believe.

*Keithcun

Exactly. Not even thinking of losing, but if we do. I'd still rather get to Wembley and lose than not get there at all.

I was there in 1975, and can remember the awful journey home, husband drove all the way Wembley to Warrington and never spoke a word. Be prepared for total devastation, but it won't happen we will win. IN SMITH WE TRUST.

Means the world to me.

Last season was great but people tried to belittle it and compare us to the Eagles as a one off of course 12 months later we are going to finish at least 3rd and are back again to defend it, if we do it then it will stamp a mark in history about this team that no one can or will ever forget.

Now The Wire

I can't get my head around anyone who says things like, "I just hope it's a great game and rugby league is the winner", unless they don't support either of the teams involved.

If Leeds get two players wrongly sent off in the first ten minutes and we steam roller their eleven men 80-0 with everyone in the game outside of Warrington kicking off about what a disgrace it was, I'll go home happy with the Cup. If it's the greatest game of rugby league ever played and Leeds win by a point I'll go home gutted.

I want us to win. End of story.

TS mind games I think. Making out that we're just there to enjoy ourselves and take whatever comes. The reality amongst the coaching staff and players will be entirely different. It means everything to them and to us to keep hold of the cup and our desire has to match or beat Leeds' . Tony will have the guys ready come Saturday 2.30.

It means everything, but I'm not going to throw a hissy fit at the team if we lose, I know the lads'll take Leeds to the wire [excuse pun





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.