There will be no Leeds Rhinos, Wigan Warriors, Warrington Wolves or St Helens in the men’s Challenge Cup Final for the first time since 1986 as Hull KR and Leigh Leopards battle it out.
For Leigh they have waited since 1971 to win the Challenge Cup and are the favourites given their standing in the league.
It is an amazing story with Leigh winning the 1895 Cup last year and playing in the Championship.
One radical rebrand later and they are favourites at Wembley.
Speaking of the rebrand, mastermind behind it Derek Beaumont appeared on BBC Breakfast this week and described the rebrand as “chavtastic.”
“There was a little bit of reluctance to get into it at first. You know, a lot of men say, you’ll never see me in leopard print and then there they are, heat to toe clad in it. You’ll see at Wembley this weekend just how mad it is.
“It’s a great thing because you can either wear it smart, you can wear it novelty or you can go completely chavtastic with it.
He also spoke about the impact on the community:
“It’s the bit I love most about rugby league, you know, and the way that we can infect the community, the way that we can help others, the way that we can recognise things.
“Our town doesn’t have a lot, it’s an old sort of pit town, they don’t exist anymore, the mills don’t exist anymore, so all we’ve really got, what people look forward to, is a game of rugby and we’ve always been languishing in the lower levels.
“We’ve made Super League three times and never really sort of made it work so this time we kind of have and so many people so happy and smiling about it.”
He also gave a score prediction and is very confident:
“I’m a confident person. I think it’ll be a good tight game. I think it’s a contest.
“Oh, you’re really harsh on me now, I think defensively we’re very very strong so I don’t think we’ll concede more than ten points and I think we’re worth thirty.”
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