St Helens friendly called off as weather wreaks havoc on Challenge Cup first round

St Helens have confirmed that Saturday’s planned pre-season clash with Swinton Lions has been called off.

The Saints were due to travel to Greater Manchester with a young squad of players this afternoon to play their first friendly of the winter. However, as is the case with so many games this weekend, the freezing conditions has forced the match to be cancelled.

The Heywood Road pitch remains frozen and has been deemed to be unplayable with the cancellation coming just a few hours before kick-off.
St Helens will be in action again before the start of the Super League season with a clash against Castleford Tigers planned to take place in a fortnight’s time for Matty Lees’ testimonial.

Swinton, though, will not play again before their season opener against Rochdale Hornets next weekend.

Castleford Tigers and Bradford Bulls have also seen friendlies cancelled this weekend, while Storm Goretti and the coinciding freezing conditions have wreaked havoc on the opening round of the Challenge Cup.

So far seven first round ties have been postponed with most being pushed back to next weekend and as pitch inspections take place across the country, more ties may yet fall by the wayside.

Games at King Cross Park, Stanningley, Woodhouse Warriors, Telford Raiders, Rochdale Mayfield, Brighouse Raiders and Wigan St Judes have all been called off so far.

As such, Monday’s Challenge Cup third round draw promises to be a convoluted one with the sheer amount of teams set to be still involved.

Wigan Warriors’ friendly clash with North Wales Crusaders looks to have been given the green light to go ahead, though, with John Duffy taking a young side across the border.

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