Challenge Cup 5th Round Preview

Sunday 22^nd May 2011       

Huddersfield Giants v Catalan Dragons;

Venue: Galpharm Stadium, Huddersfield

KO: 15:00

Referee: P Bentham

Teams;

Huddersfield (17 from): Grix, Lawrence, Cudjoe, Gilmour, Hodgson, Brown, Brough, Crabtree, Robinson, Griffin, Faiumu, Lunt, Mason, Kirmond, Patrick, Horne, McGillvary, Cording, Ferguson.

Catalan Dragons (17 from): Blanch, Sa, Stacul, Bosc, Dureau, Ferriol, Henderson, Raguin, Mounis, Gigot, Baile, Millard, Vaccari, Simon, Martins, Fakir, Paea, Baitieri, Touxagas.

First and foremost the apparent presence of Mickey Rourke at the match and quite possibly David Haye as well is amazing! I hope they’re there and in the bar! I’m sure security will be quite high ;) Get down to the Galpharm for your chance to see MICKEY ROURKE!

Both sides pushed their luck to get through to this round of the Challenge Cup after beating Batley Bulldogs and Leigh Centurions, respectively. Huddersfield currently lie 2^nd in the Super League table (well joint 1^st ;)) after beating fellow title contenders St Helens last Saturday; Catalan were unlucky to lose against Leeds last weekend, despite the scoreline, they’re 7^th. It is Catalans, however, who you could say have the upper hand over their opponents as they beat them by a singular point in France just a few weeks ago. Regular readers or my Twitter followers will remember the horrendous couple of hours I had listening to French radio!

Huddersfield are without Luke O’Donnell, who got injured in the warm up before the Saints match last weekend and Joe Wardle who was injured during last weekend’s match. It is thought that O’Donnell’s hamstring injury is the worse of the two and he is set to be out for 6 weeks. Huddersfield will also be out Keal Carlile; although I doubt he’d play in this game anyway I’d just like to pass on mine and the rest of the Rugby League community’s best wishes for his heart operation. May he make a full recovery and return to the Huddersfield team in the future. Good Luck, Keal.

Catalans have three players back from injury: Scott Dureau, Lopini Paea and Daryl Millard. However, they’re still without Remi Casty, Ben Farrar, Steve Menzies, Clint Greenshields, Vincent Duport and Cyrille Gossard.

I hope that my boys play much better than they did against Batley! Of course I want my boys to win. Good luck to both sides.

Bradford Bulls v Wigan Warriors;

Venue: Grattan Stadium, Odsal (Bradford)

KO: 15:30

Referee: S Ganson

Teams;

Bradford (17 from): Ah Van, Briggs, Burgess, Crookes, Diskin, Donaldson, Elima, Hargreaves, Jeffries, Kopczak, Langley, L'Estrange, Lynch, Olbison, Platt, Raynor, Royston, Sibbit, Whitehead.

Wigan (17 from): Tomkins, Goulding, Carmont, Richards, Deacon, Leuluai, McIlorum, Coley, Tomkins, O'Loughlin, Prescott, Lima, Hoffman, Finch, Mossop, Farrell, Tuson, Charnley, Hughes.

I’ll admit that I do love both of these sides. One of the first rugby matches I ever went to was Bradford v Leeds at Odsal and for some reason I have always loved Wigan.

The reigning Super League champions are currently third in the league but have a game in hand (against Castleford to be played in July) whereas Bradford aren’t doing too well and lie in 12^th place and are without a win in 6 super league games. Their fourth round match against Halifax, was pretty atrocious, both defensively and offensively. They were lucky that Halifax’s defence was just as bad if not worse, which meant it was them who progressed to the fifth round. Wigan had a somewhat easier tie than Bradford, they played Barrow and thrashed them 52-0.

Paul Deacon and George Carmont, the two Wigan players that are supposedly retiring at the end of the season, are set to play after shaking off the knocks they picked up in their match last week. Whilst Olivier Lima returns for Bradford. Other than that there isn’t much team news to tell you about!

I’m going to throw a spanner in the works and tip Bradford for the win. Good luck to both sides & go and support your teams!

St Helens v Featherstone Rovers;

Venue: Stobart Stadium Halton, Widnes

KO: 15:00

Referee: J Child

Teams;

St Helens (17 from): Wellens, Gardner, Shenton, Soliola, Meli, Roby, Graham, Wilkin, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Ashurst, Magennis, Foster, Armstrong, Ashe, Makinson, Hale, Greenwood, Thompson, Hand.

Featherstone (17 from): Hardman, Powell, Smeaton, Bostock, Saxton, Kain, Finn, Tonks, Kaye, Dickens, Grayshon, Spears, Dale, Welham, Haley, Morrison, Worthington, Divorty, Hardaker, Dee, Davey, Steel, Carr, Mvududu, Nurse, Gaunt, Williams, Hepworth, Hemingway, Netherton, Chappell, Johnson, Pearson. (This is Fev’s full squad & not a 19 man squad, which is obvious if you can count…)

Saints’ are still injury ravaged and they’re coming into this match on the back of a loss to Huddersfield last weekend, a match that they probably could have won. I suppose the injuries didn’t help but ah well, that’s rugby!

Featherstone are also a tad injury stricken – clearly not on the same scale of Saints though - , themselves are without Tony Tonks (great name), Tommy Saxton and Nathan Chappell. Whilst Kirk Netherton cannot play as he is cup tied.

I’ve already done one shock of the round so I’m gonna play this one safe and go for the Saints victory.   

Good luck to your teams. I haven't proof read this so sorry if there are any errors in it!