This weekend will be tremendous for rugby league fans as Wigan Warriors and Hull KR collide in a Super League semi-final after St Helens head to France after a brilliant win over Warrington Wolves.
This was the second leg of a brilliant weekend of rugby league action which saw Leigh Leopards beaten by the Robins.
Both games were brilliant and attracted amazing TV audiences according to RugbyLeagueonTV.com.
Saints and Warrington had an audience average of 123,000 and a peak of 209,000 as well as a 2% audience share.
As for Hull KR vs Leigh they had a 76,000 average and 128,000 peak with an audience share of 0.6%.
The action started on Friday night. This was always going to be a great game as a rematch of the first Challenge Cup Final without Leeds Rhinos, Wigan Warriors, Warrington Wolves and St Helens since 1986.
Hull KR had secured home advantage in the game last week but, despite trying to speed the game up, had to battle through a number of errors.
They conceded the opening points after a strange penalty against Matt Parcell. He was in front of the play the ball but got involved in the play and was subsequently offside.
He was penalised and Ben Reynolds nailed the penalty to give the Leopards the advantage early on.
They had a few chances to build pressure especially after a huge hit by Lachlan Lam which saw the ball knocked free but on the next set the Leopards squandered the opportunity with James Batchelor mopping up a kick.
Hull KR slowly but surely battled back into the game ironically by speeding the game up around the ruck and on the back of inroads created by dummy half runs, Elliot Minchella won a penalty due to a high tackle from Joe Wardle.
This time Brad Schneider nailed a penalty to make it 2-2. He looked destined to score the opener after some great interplay between Jack Walker and Matt Parcell – two Grand Final winners in 2017 with Leeds Rhinos – saw them carve open the Leopards with a series of offloads.
But the last pass to Schneider was deemed forward denting an attacking opportunity that most days would be described as a certain try but Ed Chamberlain came across to tackle him after the whistle was blown.
However, Hull KR would eventually get the opening try with a nice set play putting James Batchelor through a gap before an offload to Jack Walker to score.
Then another former Leeds star pounced on a brilliant one on one strip by Matt Parcell. On the next play Ryan Hall powered over despite the efforts of Joe Mellor.
A try just before the break, they got one just after the break after an error from Gareth O’Brien with Sam Luckley getting over for a relatively easy try with a disguised run.
Leigh then had a try disallowed for obstruction around the ruck but did get themselves back in the game when Josh Charnley scored in the corner after a sweeping move.
But Hull KR secured their semi-final spot with a penalty.
In the other game, with a semi-final awaiting against Wigan Warriors or Catalans Dragons for St Helens and Warrington Wolves met in a massive game.
A big game always, they are two major rivals hoping to sustain their title hopes. Saints went into the game having been champions for 1449 days whilst Warrington have never held the Super League title.
It was also 1,821 days since Saints lost a play off game which came against Warrington in 2018 – 18-13.
It was also a final home game for St Helens legends James Roby and Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook.
The Saints showed some early brilliance when a lovely move sent Tommy Makinson down field.
He kicked ahead and Matty Ashton cleared up in a play that cost the Saints Joe Batchelor.
The Saints squandered the next possession but again blew holes into the Warrington defence with Morgan Knowles powering through before a short James Bell pass looked set to put Mark Percival through a gap to score but he lost the ball.
We saw another excellent break from Saints when Jack Welsby wrong footed Jordy Crowther and broke down field but great cover defence from James Harrison and Matt Dufty denied him.
But eventually Saints opened the deadlock with a short ball to Curtis Sironen and he found Lewis Dodd in support to score under the sticks.
The Wolves weren’t being out played but were undercutting some of their great kicks by penalties and errors.
They did have a few openings in the first half including a break by George Williams tackled by James Roby.
But eventually Saints extended their lead to 8-0 after a Josh Drinkwater tip tackle on Jack Welsby.
The Wolves did get themselves back into the game in the second half after a sweeping move set Connor Wrench free and he dummied up against Jack Welsby.
It was nearly the wrong decision as he slipped but in the end he got over the line.
Then the crucial moment as Alex Walmsley was sin binned for contact with the head of Jordy Crowther.
Whilst he was off a number of errors and penalties led to a penalty from Stefan Ratchford levelling matters.
But as Walmsley came back onto the pitch the Saints found a way to take the lead again with Jack Welsby smuggling the ball away to Mark Percival who fed Tommy Makinson who crucially cut the angle down to allow Percival to make it 14-8.
Then it was Warrington’s turn to be reduced to 12 men when they had Joe Bullock sin binned for contact to the head.
Then Matty Russell was penalised for a high tackle and Percival converted that into a 16-8 lead.
