In an eye-catching tie, a re-vamped York City Knights team test themselves against last year’s Super League Grand Finalists. The Knights raised some eyebrows with their off-season recruitment and are predicted to push for promotion this year and will be hoping to make an impression against the Warriors. Wigan have started the season with 2 wins from 2 and wish to return to Wembley for the first time since 2017.
There will be a fair bit of change in York’s line-up. Kriss Brining and Morgan Smith are both absent through injury and will be joined experienced quartet Danny Kirmond, Chris Clarkson, Jack Teanby and Jordan Baldwinson. That means three youngsters have come into the squad including Myles Harrison who’ll likely start in the halves. York have a fair share of Challenge Cup Final experience in their squad however. Ryan Atkins, who won the cup in 2010 and 2012, will start at centre, 2011 and 2012 finalist Ben Jones-Bishop will be on the wing as will 2015 runner-up Kieran Dixon. Meanwhile 2020 winner Adam Cuthbertson will also feature.
Wigan have a few youngsters in their squad however look set to play their their strongest available 17. That said I can see youngster Sam Halsall coming in at centre to resolve the conundrum in that position at least for this week. It is possible that the likes of Jackson Hastings or John Bateman could be rested but just two games into the season I believe Adrian Lam will field them to continue to get them up to speed. Jai Field, Liam Marshall, Dom Manfredi and Oliver Gildart are still missing through injury whilst Bevan French is still not ready to return.
York
1 Matty Marsh
23 Ben Jones-Bishop
30 Tyme Dow-Nikau
4 Ryan Atkins
5 Kieran Dixon
6 Brendan O’Hagan
26 Myles Harrison
13 Adam Cuthbertson
9 Will Jubb
19 James Green
3 Liam Salter
16 Marcus Stock
20 Tim Spears
Substitutes
12 Sam Scott
21 Joe Porter
24 Dan Barcoe
28 Danny Washbrook
Wigan
3 Zak Hardaker
30 Umyla Hanley
11 Willie Isa
28 Sam Halsall
22 Jake Bibby
7 Thomas Leuluai
31 Jackson Hastings
8 Brad Singleton
9 Sam Powell
10 Joe Bullock
12 Liam Farrell
13 John Bateman
14 Ollie Partington
Substitutes
15 Morgan Smithies
19 Liam Byrne
20 Harry Smith
21 Ethan Havard
