So the reigning double winners and leeds natural predators roll into town.

Robbie burrow injured.....may god have mercy on us all.

Leeds-Wigan games tend to be a lottery. Wasn't it 2 wins each last season?

You need to cheer up lad. Or are you miffed that this Sintellins team won't be doing the double this season?

Let's enjoy the cup win for a little while. McD can worry about Wigan. Thought the tactics of Kev starting at hooker and switching with Robbie were spot on

its funny really between us, one team always seems to play well and the other doesn't. I just hope both teams play well because this is the real measuring stick for the new Wigan team.

The results between these two in the regular season over the last few years have given no indication at all as to what will happen in the Challenge Cup and Playoffs.

I just hope it will be a cracker of a game decided by the players rather than the official. I doubt it though as games between us and you seem to attract controversy.

I'll bet you weren't moaning about the referees interventions at Wembley in 2011

But probably was at the lack of intervention at Huddersfield 2012.

I hope Clarkson gets to play the last 8 minutes again.

This game might highlight the two coaches different approaches. Shaun Wane has repeatedly shown his willingness to throw a youngster in and Wigan have benefitted from having the largest squad in the league full of names that most opposition fans don't recognise, but have gained experience from being given their opportunity by Wane. By contrast Brian McDermott prefers to rely on a tried and trusted smaller pool of players. I'm not saying that either one is right as Wane has made his mistakes (Jack Murphy in the 2012 playoff anyone?) but has mostly got it right with the youngsters (Burgess, Williams, Hampshire, Powell, Crosby, Sutton, Manfredi) and his signings have tended to be speculative (Green, Taylor, Sarginson, Clubb, Smith and Bateman - though most rugby league followers would recognise Taylor and Bateman as class players).

Brian McDermott's record speaks for itself really, though I fancy that he'd want the Challenge Cup in the trophy room. Maybe the draw tonight will be kinder than the last few years (Wigan certainly benefitted last season)

Whether we win or lose on Friday is immaterial, I think that Leeds and Wigan will contest the major honours this season. Wigan at the moment seem to be running into form as Bowen is improving with every game and Tomkins may not be missed as much as I, for one, feared.

I'm relieved that Burrow will be missing and that probably more than compensates for Charnley, Flower and Pettybourne. Let's hope it's a decent game. I suspect that we may see a lot more of each other before (possibly) Old Trafford in any case.

I'd go with..
Hardaker
Briscoe
Watkins
Moon
Hall
Sutcliffe
McGuire
JP
Sinfield
Singleton
Ablett
Achurch
Delaney

Leuleui
Kirke
Clarkson
R.Ward

Looking forward to this game which I may attend for no other reason that the completion of this weekend's round of SL fixtures signal the start of the off-season for me as I switch my attention to proper summer sports like cricket and tennis. There's also the small matter of a soccer World Cup too. The only RL I'll be watching is a few games of NRL and the Origin series.

I no longer participate in "summer rugby" as I'm not a prisoner of Sky Sports scheduling during their soccer off-season. That's all summer rugby is... 10 meaningless rounds of SL and a meaningless weekend of fixtures in Manchester to spread the gospel according to mediocrity and utter pointlessness. Such a shame that Sky haven't got any rights to broadcast the FIFA World Cup. Hardly anyone will be watching their channels for the best part of two months during the months of June and July.

I'll be back in late August in time for when the meaningful fixtures return