Former Leeds Rhinos and Great Britain forward, and Sky Sports pundit, Barrie McDermott has spoken on who he thinks will win the Challenge Cup today.
Wigan Warriors and Warrington Wolves clash in the Challenge Cup final for just the second time today, the previous time being in 1990, when Wigan emerged victorious.
McDermott played for Wigan for two seasons, and won a championship during this time.
He also played in a Wigan-Warrington final, a 40-10 victory in the Regal Trophy.
However, his Challenge Cup win came with Leeds Rhinos, when they beat London Broncos to lift their first for 21 years.
Speaking on Eddie and Stevo: The Podcast, he said: “Wigan for me are the best team in the competition at the minute. They defend well, they attack well, they’ve got some magnificent players.
“Obviously a couple of suspensions in there, but the strength-in-depth means that they’re going, rightly, as favourites.”
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He did, however, go on to speak about the potential significance of a victory for Warrington Wolves.
He said: “I’ve always been a tremendous fan of Sam Burgess because of the way he dealt with MND early on in his teenage years with his dad.”
His father, Mark Burgess, died of MND in 2007 when Sam was still a teenager.
McDermott continued: “I think there’s a little bit of poetry in Sam Burgess, in his first year as a coach, on a week that somebody close to the sport died of MND, lifting that Challenge Cup.
“I don’t have a dog in the fight, I want a good game and I want everybody that stumbles on it to come away and go ‘there’s some impressive individuals physically’ because what they’ve seen through Rob and Kev is what we are at our very best.
“That’s what those two are: they’re the very very best of us and we all aspire to be a little bit more like Kev and Rob. We’ll never get there, but if we can be a bit better.”
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