Carnegie Challenge Cup 4th Round.

Saturday 7th May 2011

St Helens v Sheffield Eagles;

Venue; Stobart Stadium

KO: 15:00

Referee: B Thaler

Teams;

St Helens (17 from): Gardner, Shenton, Soliola, Meli, Eastmond, Perry, Roby, Graham, Wilkin, Flannery, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Ashurst, Dixon, Magennis, Foster, Armstrong, Ashe, Hale, Greenwood.

Sheffield Eagles (17 from): Cottle, Mills, Yere, Bergin, Laulu-Togagae, Brown, Howieson, Henderson, Stringer, Szostak, Green, McDonald, Rowe, Hirst, Hepworth, Hanson, Battye, Scott, Smith.

Saints are without Tony Puletua who will skip this game to rest some knocks, he is replaced by Chris Flannery. They are still without five half backs: Jonny Lomax, Scott Moore, Leon Pryce, Lee Gaskell and Gary Wheeler. 

Sheffield are currently on a five match winning streak and are fourth in the Championship. They'll be hoping to pull off a huge shock and beat Saints who have an endless list of injured players. 

It'll be difficult for Sheffield to beat Saints but anything could happen and they beat Wigan in the 1998 Challenge Cup final despite being the underdogs. 

Hull FC v Oldham

Venue; KC Stadium

KO: 13:00

Referee: C Leatherbarrow

Teams:

Hull FC (17 from): Aldous, T. Briscoe, Crooks, Dowes, Gleeson, Horne, Houghton, Kent, Lauaki, Lyne, Manu, Moa, Obst, Radford, Sharp, Turner, Washbrook, Westerman, Whiting.

Oldham (17 from): Williams, Wood, Clarke, Whitmore, Ellison, Bradbury, Dallimore, Clough, Gillam, Gilchrist, Stenchion, Sutton, Fogarty, Ward, Diveney, Noone, Robinson, Nield, Bentley.

Hull coach Richard Agar is set to rest Craig Fitzgibbon and Mark O'Meley after their bruising performances in recent weeks. Lee Radford and Jack Aldous return in their places. Agar has also called up a few other youngsters and will rest top try scorer Kirk Yeaman along with Danny Tickle and Cameron Phelps. 

Injuries and suspensions mean that Oldham are without 10 of their squad for this match. They have also had to call up four players who don't actually have squad numbers as they're so short of players. 

Hull reached the final in 2008, three years after they won the competition in 2005, but have been knocked out in this very round over the past two years, admittedly, both those matches were all super league encounters. Oldham will do all they can to send Hull out of the competition early but I doubt they will be able to do so even against a weakened Hull side. 

Leeds Rhinos v Crusaders RL

Venue; Headingley Stadium

KO: 15:15

Referee: S Ganson

The first half is on BBC One and the second on BBC 2.

Teams:

Again! I am lacking team news for this match, so you know the drill if you have it, comment on here for me please :)

It's the only all super league encounter in this round of the Challenge Cup meaning that there can only be 13 SL teams maximum in the draw for the fifth round. 

Crusaders are without Jordan Tansey, a former Leeds player himself, as he is cup tied. Tony Martin and Jason Chan are also out through injury. However, they welcome back Vince Mellars, Peter Lupton, Richard Moore and Elliot Kear. 

Leeds are on a three match winning streak and have recently beaten Crusaders. They are now back at full strength, well almost (I don't know!). Leeds were the runners up in the competition last year and will be hoping to go one further and win it this year. It'll be difficult for both sides but I think Leeds will progress to the fifth round. 


Featherstone Rovers v Lezignan XIII
Venue: Big Fellas Stadium

KO: 18:30
Referee: R Laughton

I am going to be honest with you, I don't have a clue about this match. The most I know is that I keep getting Facebook event requests about it. I'll take a stab in the dark and go for Fev to win.