Warrington Wolves will travel to face Leigh Leopards today without their captain George Williams meaning a much-changed line-up.
It was confirmed that Williams would go under the knife with the Wire and England skipper set to be out for eight to ten weeks, something that would rule him out of the Challenge Cup Final, provided Wire make it.
They will face Leigh Leopards in the Challenge Cup semi-finals, however, they’ve first got to face them in Super League Rivals Round today as the teams in sixth and eighth face off.
The Leopards snapped a three-game winless streak in Super League in Round Seven as they beat Castleford Tigers, whilst Warrington saw their winning streak ended by Hull FC.
Looking ahead to today’s game, we’ve looked at the respective 21-man squads and made a prediction for how both Adrian Lam and Sam Burgess will select their teams. Here’s our Leigh Leopards and Warrington Wolves predictions.
How will Leigh Leopards line up against Warrington?
The key news for Leigh is that both first choice centres are out with Umyla Hanley and Tesi Niu missing, the latter having been one of the competition’s form players in 2025.
Positive news is that Josh Charnley could return and if he does, Leigh could just bump Bailey Hodgson inside to centre whilst Keanan Brand would play in the other centre spot.
Matty Davis is selected again as the back-up hooker instead of Brad Dwyer whilst Ethan O’Neill is a welcome return in the pack.
Predicted Leigh Leopards XIII: David Armstrong, Darnell McIntosh, Keanan Brand, Bailey Hodgson, Josh Charnley, Gaz O’Brien, Lachlan Lam, Owen Trout, Edwin Ipape, Robbie Mulhern, Ethan O’Neill, Frankie Halton, Isaac Liu
Interchanges: Matty Davis, Alec Tuitavake, Aaron Pene, Jack Hughes
🐆𝗦𝗤𝗨𝗔𝗗 𝗦𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗘𝗗🏉
The squad has been picked for Saturday afternoon at The Leopards Den!
SAT 19 APR | KO 1:30PM | THE LEOPARDS DEN
Get your tickets below ⬇️
— Leigh Leopards (@LeighLeopardsRL) April 17, 2025
How will Warrington Wolves line up against Leigh?
There is a major call for Sam Burgess to make given that George Williams is out and the decision to allow Oli Leyland to represent Widnes on dual registration yesterday suggests that he’s entirely confident in his decision.
He could either opt for Stefan Ratchford to partner Marc Sneyd or hand out a debut to academy half Ewan Irwin and we’re predicting the former, given that Irwin represented the academy team yesterday.
Ratchford got the start in Round One but there’s now a chance that he and Marc Sneyd could play together over a decade after doing so for Salford. Elsewhere, selection is fairly standard with the likes of Arron Lindop being one of the only other major absentees.
Predicted Warrington Wolves XIII: Matt Dufty, Matty Ashton, Toby King, Rodrick Tai, Josh Thewlis, Stefan Ratchford, Marc Sneyd, Paul Vaughan, Danny Walker, Zane Musgrove, Lachlan Fitzgibbon, Ben Currie, Jordan Crowther
Interchanges: Max Wood, Luke Yates, Sam Powell, Adam Holroyd
Rivals Round squad news 👊 pic.twitter.com/hbi5IvaHlM
— Warrington Wolves (@WarringtonRLFC) April 17, 2025
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