Leeds Rhinos are set to take on St Helens for the second week in a row but this time in the Betfred Challenge Cup as they look to avenge the defeat against Super League.
They may be able to welcome back some big names for the game on Friday and won’t miss James Bentley after he passed his head injury assessment last week.
Rohan Smith confirmed as such: “Yeah he passed, he passed that straight after the game, no issues. It was more the sort of whiplash action of the contact.”
Smith also confirmed that Paul Momirovski could return to the centres for the game after missing last week with a shoulder injury: “Yeah, he’s likely to be in the 21. He’s done a bit today and making good signs of progression. So we’ll see how he is on Thursday before making a final call.”
Smith explained how the injury came about: “No, that came in the Catalans match. At Leigh he had that niggle and it sort of just loitered so we decided to give it some healing time last week and it’s responded but whether it’s responded well enough we’ll double-check.”
Either way Rohan Smith has been left with a big decision to whether or not to play him.
He also admitted he was excited to have Sam Lisone back from his ban: “Yes, Sam’s a big part of what we’re doing, he’s a key part of our group on and off the field, he’s a great character and a good physical specimen that can bring some skill and some footwork and some real collision to our game. So we’ll welcome him back.
“He had a few little pieces going on in the pre-season that sort of limited his ability to be in full training so he’s had a couple of weeks of some good hard work so he’s looking good and raring to go.”
Leeds Rhinos and St Helens Challenge Cup History
Credit: Imago Images
In recent times we have frequently seen Leeds Rhinos and St Helens go toe to toe in Super League Grand Finals, in fact no Grand Final has been played as often as Leeds v Saints.
That being said, the last time they met in the Challenge Cup Final was way back in 1978. In the Super League however they have met repeatedly in semi-finals. They met in 2001, 2002 and 2003 as well as in 2008, 2010 and 2015.
They have also met in the early rounds in 2009 (Round Four), 2014 (Round Five) and 2021 (Round Six).
