Leeds Rhinos head to Wigan Warriors tomorrow night with a place in the 25th Betfred Super League Grand Final awaiting the winner.
On eight previous occasions these two have met in a game where Old Trafford has awaited the victor doing so in 1998, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2013 and right now the two share four wins a piece.
Only two of these games have taken place at the DW Stadium. The first came in 2012 when the fifth placed Rhinos shocked league leaders Wigan who selected them in the club call.
Interestingly, Leeds only scored one try that night but came away with the win thanks to a late Kevin Sinfield penalty who scored 9 of Leeds’ 13 points in the 13-12 win.
A year later Wigan exacted their revenge on their way to the double meanwhile last year Leeds did travel over to the DW Stadium in the play-offs but in week one where an 8-0 win saw them progress to the semi-finals.
Leeds will want to replicate those heroics on Friday night and will have a superb following at the DW Stadium.
On Sunday night, just over 24 hours after their semi-final trip to Wigan was confirmed by Salford’s 28-0 win over Huddersfield, the Rhinos revealed they’d already sold 2000 tickets for the game.
Today they’ve announced another impressive milestone in ticket sales for the game on Friday with only 600 tickets remaining from the allocation given to them by the Warriors.
This will only adorn a terrific occasion as two of rugby league’s biggest names do battle for a place on rugby league’s biggest stage.
The Rhinos will be without key players David Fusitu’a, Harry Newman, Ash Handley, Morgan Gannon as well as the banned Rhyse Martin. Meanwhile, Mikolaj Oledzki and Aidan Sezer are doubts.
Cade Cust and Liam Farrell will miss out for Wigan.
