St Helens and Leeds have both announced their 21-man squads for Saturday afternoon’s Challenge Cup Third Round clash at the Totally Wicked Stadium (KO 2:30pm).
Saints go into the tie on the back of convincing wins over Salford and Hull KR in the league, conceding just one try in total and scoring nine.
As the current Challenge Cup holders, though, the Rhinos will be hoping to replicate their heroics of 2021, where Luke Gale’s late drop goal sealed a famous 17-16 victory over the Red Devils at Wembley.
They’ve registered a win over Wakefield and suffered defeat to Castleford in Super League’s opening two rounds.
The game will be available to watch on BBC One, with coverage starting from 2:00pm.
St Helens
Mark Percival and Agnatius Paasi both return for Saints after missing out last week through injury. Lachlan Coote is also set to make his first appearance of the season after sitting out the first two league games despite being involved in the 21. Young forward Jake Wingfield retains his place in the squad, with Aaron Smith (concussion) and Tom Nisbet dropping out. Morgan Knowles continues to be unavailable as he recovers from a thumb injury.
21-man squad: 1 Lachlan Coote, 2 Tom Makinson, 3 Kevin Naiqama, 4 Mark Percival, 5 Regan Grace, 6 Jonny Lomax, 7 Theo Fages, 8 Alex Walmsley, 9 James Roby, 10 Matty Lees, 11 Joel Thompson, 12 James Bentley, 14 Sione Mata’utia, 15 Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, 16 Kyle Amor, 17 Agnatius Paasi, 18 Jack Welsby, 20 Joe Batchelor, 21 Lewis Dodd, 22 Josh Simm, 23 Jake Wingfield.
Leeds Rhinos
There’s just one change to the Rhinos’ 21, with teenage forward Morgan Gannon replacing Richie Myler, who was a late omission last week with a hamstring issue. Luke Gale is named despite reports he has broken his thumb, while it looks like there will be no debut for Kyle Eastmond against his former club. Leeds remain without Jack Walker (foot), Harry Newman (leg), Konrad Hurrell (calf), Ash Handley (knee), Rob Lui (quad), Tom Holroyd (knee) and Callum McLelland (groin) through injury.
21-man squad: 2 Tom Briscoe, 7 Luke Gale, 8 Mikolaj Oledzki, 9 Kruise Leeming, 10 Matt Prior, 11 Alex Mellor, 12 Rhyse Martin, 13 Zane Tetevano, 14 Brad Dwyer, 15 Liam Sutcliffe, 17 Cameron Smith, 19 King Vuniyayawa, 20 Bodene Thompson, 21 Alex Sutcliffe, 22 Sam Walters, 24 Luke Briscoe, 25 James Donaldson, 26 Jarrod O’Connor, 27 Jack Broadbent, 28 Corey Hall, 31 Morgan Gannon.
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