Saints remain favourites for Challenge Cup glory again

Reigning Challenge Cup holders St Helens remain favourites to defend their crown ahead of the quarter finals of the competition this weekend. Kristian Woolf’s side are still the team to beat in Super League and they are in position to defend their league crown as they sit top of the table after seven games.

Despite their shock defeat away to Toulouse raising question marks a few weeks ago, Saints responded last Friday with a comfortable 26-0 win over Leeds, and they will be in confident mood ahead of this weekend. The Red Vee travel to Catalans on Saturday for a repeat of last season’s Grand Final and despite them having the toughest tie of the round, they remain favourites for the competition at 9/4.

There is no question that many fans in rugby league love to have a flutter, whether that’s on casino igre/casino games or sport’s markets, and you would expect many people will be backing St Helens to win their 13^th Challenge Cup title this season.

Wigan are second favourites for cup glory at 3/1 and Matty Peet’s side will fancy their chances in Sunday’s last quarter final at Wakefield, though they will have to be wary of Trinity who have been in fine form.

Catalans perhaps represent the best value to win the competition outright at 5/1. That may seem a bizarre thing to say with them facing favourites Saints on Saturday, however with home advantage they are more than capable of edging that game and if they do, Steve McNamara’s team will become favourites to win the cup.

We start to get to some of the outsiders after this with last year’s finalists Castleford at 9/1. Lee Radford’s side have started slowly in the league but are slowly picking up momentum. Their resounding win at Leeds in the last round was backed up with a comfortable home win against Toulouse and though their quarter final tie away at Hull KR is a tricky one, victory and a favourable semi final draw will have the Tigers fans believing they can go one better this year.

Huddersfield and Hull FC are next in at 10/1. The two sides face each other in Saturday’s second quarter final in what is a very difficult game to call. Whoever wins though will be just 80 minutes away from the final at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at the end of next month, so this match represents a superb opportunity for both teams.

Hull KR are out at 11/1, but again a win over Castleford on Friday will give them an excellent chance of going all the way and having previously beaten the Tigers at home in the league this season, they will believe they can do it again.

The rank outsiders are Wakefield at 20/1 and along with Catalans this represents the best value in our opinion. Wakefield have chalked up three wins in a row, two of which were away at Warrington – having beaten them in the league and cup in consecutive weeks. With that in mind, they are more than capable of beating Wigan on their home turf this Sunday and if that happens, their odds will come in and many punters will know that.