Stevo has his say on Hull KR resting star men ahead of Challenge Cup Final

Wigan Warriors and Leeds Rhinos provided the opposition for Challenge Cup Finalists Hull KR and Leigh Leopards last week in Super League and both games were very different.

Leigh rested Josh Charnley and Zak Hardaker as Oliver Gildart came into the side for a debut but cannot feature against his future club on Saturday.

They were involved in a tough battle with Leeds that wasn’t settled till a Ben Reynolds drop goal won the game. Perhaps good practice ahead of Saturday.

As for Hull KR they rested almost their entire team and even loaned in players to help out as they were well beaten by Wigan Warriors.

Not only do these two approaches provide different positives and negatives for both sides, they also caused a lot of debate and speaking on the Eddie and Stevo podcast, Stevo had his say on Hull KR resting their stars:

“Look, it was interesting to know that Hull KR decided to put out a very, very weak side. So they were always going to get defeated. Simple as that, but not the Leigh Leopards.

“That was interesting because they wanted those two table points and that just shows you how looking forward to the future that the Leopards are.

“I reckon a lot of the clubs would have said, ‘oh, we’re at Wembley and it’s a great occasion and we’ve got a chance to lift the trophy, so we don’t want to run the risk of injuring our star players’.

“They did take that risk and I’m glad that they won. That was a fantastic win. They’re a great side. They’ve got an impressive, strong pack. I mean, they’ve got Lachlan Lam, who to me is going to be the key player at Wembley this weekend.

“Who would have thought that they would have been such a high position in the league table at this point in time? Who would have thought that?”

It will be interesting to see if Hull KR take their time getting up to speed in the game or if they look the fresher of the two sides.

It has all the makings of a great Challenge Cup Final.