Round Seven of Super League 2023 got underway with the Battle of the Borough as Leigh Leopards hosted the Wigan Warriors with eighth toaking on third with local bragging rights up for grabs between the two sides located just eight miles apart.

Adrian Lam was facing his past employers as he took on Matt Peet´s side in a game which few were brave enough to call, but the which the bookies were leaning towards an away win having given the Leopards an eight-point start on the handicap coupon.

In front of a record Leigh Sports Village home crowd, a fifty-point win would lift the Leopards above Wigan into third spot, but a win of any kind would see them spend the night in fourth.

A win for the visitors would see them up to second in the table, at least until the Dragons play on Saturday evening.

It was third against fourth in round six as the Wigan Warriors took on the Salford Red Devils in the game of the round at the JJB Stadium.

A win for either side would secure third spot at the end of the weekend and keep them in touch with the two sides who have recorded five wins from five so far in 2023, Warrington Wolves and the Catalans Dragons.

Wigan were the favourites to make home advantage pay, Paul Rowley´s side getting a twelve point start on the handicap coupon against Matt Peet´s charges.

Second placed Catalans Dragons looked to maintain their perfect start to the season as they travelled to Wigan to take on a Warriors side who are tucked in behind them in third spot, recovering brilliantly after losing their opening 2023 fixture at Hull KR in the opening round.

Wigan were strong favourites with the bookies after not conceding a single point in their last two outings, the Dragons being given a fourteen-point start on the handicap coupon, but a win of any description would be enough to lift either the Warriors or the Dragons to the top of the table ahead of tomorrow night’s fixtures.

The snow had started falling in the lead up to kick off and it was bitterly cold as the two sides shivered their way onto the pitch.

With the whole nation still buzzing from the morning´s brilliant Saints victory over the Penrith Panthers in the World Club Challenge, Hull KR and Wigan Warriors went into battle in round one of the Super League as they got their 2023 campaigns underway in Channel 4´s first televised Super League game of the year.

It was new coach Willie Peters first game in charge of the Robins, their supporters full of hope that this would be a new dawn as they took up the quest for silverware.

With one successful season under his belt, including the Challenge Cup win, Matt Peet knows that 2023 is the year he will be judged on how well he challenges the St Helens monopoly.

It was a big Craven Park turnout and a great atmosphere.

Two sides with home grounds separated by under a mile to the east of Wigan were thrown together in a first round of the Challenge Cup as Wigan St Patricks took on Ince Rose Bridge for the honour of travelling to Workington to take on the Championship One side in the second round.

Ince Rose Bridge were underdogs, travelling the short distance to play the game but also plying their trace in Division One of the National Conference rather than the Premier division currently occupied by St Patricks.

There was a big crowd in attendance to witness the action.

Fifth-placed Leeds continued their march through the play-offs with a semi-final visit to second-placed Wigan on Friday night, with a berth in the Betfred Super Legue Grand Final itself at stake.

The Rhinos have made a tradition of sneaking into the play-offs from unpromising positions, and this year has been no different, winning their spot by beating fellow early season relegation contenders Castleford in the last regular round.

But could they do it again, or would the Warriors put an end to their hopes?

Just one of Steve McNamara´s seventeen-man side which travelled to Wigan to take on the Warriors had a squad number under seventeen and ten players were given their debut, an indication that the Dragons were happy with their fourth-place finish in Super League 2022 and that their priority was to give their first team squad a week off to prepare for the play offs.

Wigan, already guaranteed a weekend off next week, named a strong side who were expected to record a massive victory, the bookies giving the visitors a massive forty-six point start on the handicap coupon.

The game was a dead rubber, treated as such by the French side, and all credit to those who could be bothered to both attend and tune in to watch on SKY.

 

Second placed Wigan Warriors needed to pick up a win against third bottom Warrington Wolves to continue to delay fierce rivals St Helens being crowned as Super League minor premiers, while a victory for Warrington would halt their slide towards the relegation zone.

Warrington haven´t won on their last three outings whereas the Warriors have won two out of their last three and in doing so averaged over fifty points a game against the two Hull sides.

Wigan were strong favourites with the Wolves getting a fourteen-point start on the handicap coupon.

Warrington had to turn the corner of their 2022 season at some point, and where better than Wigan to do it, but it turned out that Wigan were in no mood for giving up the chase of top spot.

Hull KR faced a daunting trip to Wigan to take on a Warriors side who are still in second place despite being taken apart by the Leeds Rhinos last Thursday.

KR picked up a win over a struggling Warrington Wolves side last time out which was a big confidence boost for the side under the temporary stewardship of Danny McGuire.

The bookies couldn´t see beyond a bounce back win for the Warriors and they game the Robins a twenty-four-point start in the handicap coupon, but as we push towards settling the end of season play-off places there have been some strange results across the Super League.

Would this be one of the strange ones, the usual hordes making the journey from Hull hoped so.

Magic Weekend´s game two on Saturday saw a top of the table clash between St Helens and Wigan Warriors in a game which could go a long way to deciding who lifts the Minor Premiership at the end of the season.

A win for Saints would lift them four points clear of the chasers and into poll position to end the season on top of the pile.

Saints were slight favourites with the bookies, Wigan being given a two-point start on the handicap coupon, mainly due to the omission from the Saints side including Walmsley and Makinson while Wigan looked strong on paper.

It promised to be another close one to entertain the ever-increasing crowd.

With two sides at opposite ends of the table, there was much to play for between Wakefield Trinity and Wigan Warriors with very different aspirations.

Wigan wanted the two points to get within two points of St Helens at the top of the table after they lost to the Dragons last night while Trinity were getting dragged closer to the relegation spot after Toulouse surprised Hull KR yesterday.

The bookies couldn´t see past a big Wigan win with Trinity getting a fourteen-point start on the handicap coupon, mainly because they were walloped by the Salford Red Devils last time out in a humiliating 74-10 defeat.

Wigan were looking for a fifth consecutive win and most pundits believed that they wouldn´t have an issue.

Fresh from lifting their twentieth Challenge Cup last weekend in London, the Wigan Warriors travelled to Castleford to take on the Tigers in the knowledge that a big win would see them move above both Huddersfield and Catalans into second spot, and a win of any description would see them up to third.

Lee Radford´s Tigers side were looking to consolidate their position in the top six and put some breathing space between themselves and Hull KR in seventh, however, a heavy loss could see them drop into the bottom half of the table on points difference.

Wigan moved Jai Field into the halves in place of the injured Cade Cust and John Bateman and Morgan Smithies were also missing from the side which triumphed last week.

The home side were without the services of Mamo, Qareqare and Blair but could still field a decent seventeen.

Too close to call was the opinion of most pundits as the two sides, neck and neck in the Super League, Wigan Warriors and Huddersfield Giants went head-to-head at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the Challenge Cup Final The two sides last met in a Challenge Cup final in the 1919-20 season when it was Huddersfield who emerged as 21-10 victors in a game played in front of 14,000 fans at Headingley in Leeds.

Wigan have lifted the trophy on nineteen occasions, Huddersfield seven times, Wigan´s last win in 2013 but there would be few from West Yorkshire who had witnessed a Huddersfield cup win as they hadn´t lifted the trophy for sixty-nine years.

The bookies had made the Warriors slight favourites but most in the stadium had no idea what the next eighty minutes would deliver.

In a dress rehearsal for the Challenge Cup final, the two sides who win through their semi-finals last weekend were pitted against one another in Round Twelve of Super League as the Huddersfield Giants played hosts to the Wigan Warriors but with both sides making many changes to their line-ups, neither wanted to give any advantage to their opponents.

The two points were the main concern with a win for the Warriors putting them two points clear at the top of the table and should the Giants take the spoils then they would be up to fourth just three points adrift of the top two sides.

Both coaches made many changes from last weekend´s sides, the Giants without Cudjoe, McQueen, Yates, Hill and McGillvary amongst others while Wigan made a whole host of changes with Field, Marshall, Cust, Farrell, Bateman, and Smithies amongst those missing from the side who overcame Saints last weekend.

The luck of the draw threw together Super League´s top two sides in a semi-final encounter of the highest calibre as St Helens faced the Wigan Warriors for a place in the Challenge Cup final at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at the end of the month.

Saints won the Super League encounter earlier in the season on Good Friday, but this was the Challenge Cup, and you can never write off Wigan in the cup, even if the bookies had made Saints the clear favourites and given Wigan an eight-point start on the handicap coupon.

The bookies believed that Saints were a shoe-in for the first final berth, it would take a miracle for Wigan to progress.

Top were taking on second in the final Rivals round game in front of a full house at the Totally Wicked Stadium as the Champions St Helens took on one of the major challengers to their crowd, the arch enemy, Wigan Warriors.

Whoever picked up the two points today would be two points clear at the top of the league ahead of Easter Monday´s clashes but Wigan would have to do it without Zak Hardaker who was dropped, for disciplinary reasons, by coach Peet while Saints were without the injured Will Hopoate.

Kristian Woolf knew that a win this afternoon would be a big boost for St Helens but if Wigan could pick up the points in the oppositions lair, then they would be flying high.

Warrington started this home Cup tie as clear favourites to beat Wakefield at home and book a date to welcome Wigan to the Halliwell Jones Stadium in the quarter final.

The bookies had them at 10-3 on for the win, while Trinity were 5-2 - despite beating their hosts in the league last weekend.

Warrington started this home Cup tie as clear favourites to beat Wakefield at home and book a date to welcome Wigan to the Halliwell Jones Stadium in the quarter final.

The bookies had them at 10-3 on for the win, while Trinity were 5-2 - despite beating their hosts in the league last weekend.

The Super League sides have entered the Betfred Challenge Cup as we launched full steam ahead into round six with the opening fixture, chosen by Premier Sports for Friday night broadcasting, being an intriguing fixture between the Wigan Warriors and the Salford Red Devils.

Both sides came into tonight’s game on the back of confidence boosting wins last weekend with Wigan defeating the Castleford Tigers and Salford taking the scalp of the Leeds Rhinos, but the bookies thought that there would be only one winner and with the Red Devils getting a fourteen-point start on the handicap coupon, they were expecting the Cherry & White adorned, nineteen times winners of the famous old trophy, to be the ones making progress.

Both the Wigan Warriors and Castleford Tigers came into tonight’s clash at the DW Stadium, to mark the start of round six of Super League 2022, on the back of defeats last time out.

Wigan were on the receiving end of a humiliating nilling at the hands of the Catalans Dragons, and Lee Radford´s Tigers must have been concerned that they would be the ones that faced a massive backlash.

Tommy Leuluai and Willie Isa were both back for the Cherry & Whites, while Castleford welcomed back Jake Mamo, Bureta Faraimo and George Griffin.

Our pre-match Twitter poll showed that 80% of people thought that Wigan would be able to put last weeks horrors behind them and the bookies agreed in giving the Tigers a twelve-point start on the handicap coupon.