Challenge Cup 5th Round Preview

I have some exciting news for you all! As of next Wednesday (26^th May) I’m going to do a mid week round up of all the latest rugby league news :-) I told you it was exciting!

Saturday 21^st May 2011

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats v Castleford Tigers

Venue: The Hearwell Stadium/Belle Vue/ whatever it’s called these days, Wakefield

KO: 14:30pm

Referee: Richard Silverwood

Coverage on BBC 1 (and BBC 1 HD)

Teams;

Wakefield (17 from): Blaymire, Murphy, Korkidas, Rinaldi, King, Henderson, Morrison, Lee, Johnson, Morton, Mariano, Howarth, Veivers, Davey, Wildie, Hyde, Griffin, G Johnson, Amor.

Castleford (17 from): Arundel, Chase, Clark, Dixon, Emmitt, Ferres, Fozzard, Holmes, Hudson, Isa, Jones, Mathers, Milner, Orr, Owen, Snitch, Thompson, Widders, Youngquest.

I reckon this will be the match of the weekend, so don’t let me down fellow Yorkshire sides! I’ll be sure to tell you in my write up on Sunday night/Monday morning whether it lived up to my expectations or not.

Wakefield beat Castleford by four points in the Easter Friday meeting between these two sides after a thrilling game. Could Wakefield pull off another shock and beat their neighbours? Of course they could, I’m not saying they will though!

Castleford will have Willie Isa and Nick Youngquest back for this match after injury. They have also recalled Jordan Thompson and Daryl Clark; they missed last week’s thrashing against Warrington.

Wakefield have kept Dale Morton, who has scored three tries in the past two games, in their squad after a successful return after a serious knee injury. However, they are without five players, two of which are injured, Chris Dean and Luke George. Whilst the other three are all cup-tied, they are Liam Higgins, Tyrone McCarthy and Gareth Moore.

I’m not a lover of either side but I’d love to see Wakefield beat Castleford again. It may happen, but I’m not sure. Good luck to both sides.

Widnes Vikings v Hull FC;

Venue: Stobart Stadium Halton, Widnes

KO: 15:00

Referee: R Hicks.

Teams;

Widnes (17 from): Leuluai, Grady, I'Anson, Allen, Coyle, Heckenberg, Lunt, Tyrer, Kavanagh, Penny, Pickersgill, D Sculthorpe, Houghton, Ropati, Gore, Varkulis, Gardner, Flynn, K Haggerty.

Hull FC (17 from): T Briscoe, Dowes, Gleeson, Horne, Houghton, Kent, Lauaki, Manu, Moa, O'Meley, Phelps, Radford, Sharp, Tickle, Turner, Washbrook, Westerman, Whiting, Yeaman.

Widnes will be somewhat weakened for this match after their three dual registered players, Dom Crosby, Logan Tomkins and Joe Mellor have not being given permission to play by their parent club, Wigan.

Richard Agar is going to rest Sam Obst for this match as he suffered a side strain in their match against Salford last weekend. Craig Fitzgibbon will also be rested and Sean Long is still out with his broken hand.

I know very little about this match as you can probably tell from the preview. I reckon Hull will beat Widnes, in some style. They’ll miss the Wigan boys.