After a round nine packed with shock outcomes in favour of the underdogs, the confusion in the final fixture of the weekend was to understand whether a Hull FC side who had only won once in the 2024 season, or a Leeds Rhinos side who seem adept at engineering defeats when wins look the most likely outcome, were the real underdogs.

Hull FC gave debuts to new signing Ed Chamberlain and Yusuf Aydin while the Rhinos gave a debut to the nineteen your old Riley Lumb his debut on the wing in place of David Fusitu’a.

The bookies chose Hull FC as the underdogs, handicapping the Rhinos by fourteen points on the coupon and in the week of upsets suggested that it was a cast iron win for the Airlie Birds but a win for neither side would likely improve their current league positions.

Making the short trip to the Salford Community Stadium in Salford, the Warrington Wolves had one eye on the top of the table, but the other looking over their shoulder at Salford in the knowledge that a victory would see them move above St Helens while a reversal of great magnitude could see them drop below their opponents on points difference.

The Wolves were slight favourites for the win with the bookmakers, but the Red Devils were only given a four-point start on the handicap coupon, most commentators were unsure of the outcome with both clubs realistic prospects for a top six finish.

After yesterday’s shock reversals in round nine, anything could happen.

The top of the table beckoned for the Catalans Dragons as they travelled to Leigh to take on a Leopard side who are still looking for their second win of the season as they try to pull away from the sides at the bottom of the table.

Despite the chasm between the two sides on the league table the bookies were struggling to find a favourite but plumped for the visitors but only by handicapping them two points on the coupon, perhaps the premise being that Leigh must gain a win at some point after many close losses.

Leigh are still six points adrift of eighth place Leeds Rhinos but the Dragons knew that a win would lift them to the top of the pile entering round ten next weekend.

After their stunning comeback win against the Rhinos in round eight, the Huddersfield Giants set their sights on the champions St Helens as they travelled to the Totally Wicked Stadium for a Thursday evening encounter which could see them move level with three other teams in second place in the league table.

The Giants were the underdogs as Ian Watson’s side took on Paul Wellens troops with the bookies giving the visitors a ten point start on the handicap coupon.

The Saints won big last time out against lowly Hull FC but that victory came on the back of two consecutive losses, but a win of any description would send the red vee back to the top of the pile, at least until the rest of the weekend games take place.

Top placed Wakefield Trinity made the short trip to Mount Pleasant to take on the Batley Bulldogs who started the round in tenth place with just a single win to their name after four games in the 2024 season.

A good win for the Bulldogs could see them into the top half of the table and kick start their season but the bookies were strongly leaning towards a win for Trinity and had given the home side a massive thirty-two points start on the coupon.

The home crowd were full of hope, but low on expectation as the league’s big boys rolled into town on a sunny afternoon with the aim of preserving their perfect start to the season.

Both the Catalans Dragons and Hull Kingston Rovers could finish round eight at the top of the league as they met in the south of France for arguably the tie of the round, the Dragons needing just a win to go two points clear at the top, KR needing to win by a forty-point margin to jump four places.

The bookies favoured a home win, handicapping the Dragons by six points on the coupon, but the Robins are it making up the numbers in 2024 and were looking to take the two points to lift themselves level on league points with the four sides ahead of them.

The atmosphere was electric as the two sides took to the field.

After putting the Rhinos to the sword in round seven, you could find few people who would back against a similar scoreline at the felidae versus canidea encounter between the Wolves and the Leopards which took place on a round eight Saturday afternoon at the Halliwell-Jones.

A Wolves win by twenty-three or more points would see them back above St Helens to the top of the table, at least for a couple of hours until the Dragons played Hull KR in the south of France, while a win for ninth placed Leigh would at least give them some breathing space to the bottom of the table, but it would still leave them four points adrift of eighth placed Leeds Rhinos.

The bookies were predicting a twelve-point win for the home side but in doing so were giving some credit to a Leopards side who are improving week on week but not getting the league points that their efforts deserve.

Eighth placed Leeds Rhinos hosted Sixth placed Huddersfield Giants in a Round Eight encounter at Headingley as both sides looked to keep pace with the top of the table and avoid slipping further behind in the race for the spoils in 2024.

The bookies were going for a home win, but only just, as they gave the Rhinos a two-point handicap on the coupon with no-one suggesting that the Rhinos would rampage to the 54-0 scoreline that they registered the last time that the two sides met at Headingley in June 2023.

The Giants came into the game on the back of that massive Challenge Cup win over the Catalans Dragons last weekend, the Rhinos on the back of just one win in their last four outings.

England’s Men and Women will play France in Toulouse on Saturday 29 June, as the French Rugby League (FFR XIII) celebrates 90 years of the game in the republic.

England Women take on France at 3:30pm (local time), followed by the Men’s international at 6pm – and both matches will be streamed live from Stade Ernest-Wallon on Super League+, Rugby League’s global, direct-to-consumer streaming service.

Both the Men’s and Women’s teams defeated their French counterparts 64-0 in last year’s mid-season internationals at Warrington, though the scorelines were a little closer when the two sides last visited France in 2021 – the Men winning 30-10 in Perpignan and the Women 40-4.

 

The bookies fancied St Helens to make progress in the Challenge Cup and join a semi-final line-up of Hull KR, Huddersfield Giants, and the Wigan Warriors, as they welcomed the Warrington Wolves to the Totally Wicked Stadium with an eight-point handicap on the coupon.

With no meeting so far in 2024, the last time that the two sides met was back in September 2023 when the Saints were the victors by 16-8, but the last time that there was a meeting in the Challenge Cup, also a quarter final stage, back in 2020 it was Warrington who secured the win before losing to Salford in the semi-final.

Huddersfield experienced the ‘magic of the cup’ when they beat the Dragons in France last night, the question on everyone’s lips was whether this Sunday afternoon would be Warrington’s turn.

The men’s and women’s Challenge Cup semi-final draws were held during the half time interval in the final men’s quarter final between St Helens and the Warrington Wolves at the Totally Wicked Stadium.

Both competitions are down to their last four sides with Leeds, St Helens, Wigan and York represented in the women’s competition and Hull KR, Huddersfield, Wigan and either St Helens or Warrington in the men’s.

The draw was made by Jamie Peacock and Kevin Brown with the Women’s draw taking place first.

When the draw was made for the quarter final of the 2024 Challenge Cup, most supporters would have been willing for their side to be drawn out against a struggling Castleford Tigers side who have only picked up one league win so far this season, in the end that lucky side was the Wigan Warriors.

Many pundits, and the bookies, believed that this was as good as a bye for the Warriors and with them being handicapped by thirty points on the coupon, they were a ‘shoe in’ for the semi-finals and probably the side that the others would look to avoid one game out from Wembley.

The concept of a Tigers win was unthinkable for all except the Castleford coach Craig Lingard and his trusted seventeen players playing for the pride in their jersey.

In a repeat of the 2023 Challenge Cup Final, Hull Kingston Rovers were looking for revenge against a Leigh Leopards side who were hungry for a return trip to Wembley to relive the glories of last season.

Hull KR favourites, based on their great start to the Super League season, and they were handicapped by eight points on the coupon, but this was the cup and in the cup it is possible for anything to happen.

It was a full-blooded opening eight minutes with both sides setting out their intentions early in proceedings, Leigh having the better of the but it was the Robins who opened the scoring with Joe Burgess breaking the Leigh line on his own twenty and sprinting down the centre of the field to sidestep the full back and go in under the sticks.

Mikey Lewis was unable to add the conversion.

The French were in town for a fifth versus seventh clash as Toulouse Olympique looked for their second win of the season against the Bradford Bulls as both sides looked for some consistency in their 2024 campaigns.

There was just one change for the home side after last weeks stunning win over Featherstone Rovers with Jorge Taufua back in the starting line up after serving a two-match suspension against a Toulouse side looking to bounce back from last weeks loss to the Swinton Lions.

The Bulls were favourites with the bookies for the win and had been handicapped by four points on the coupon, but it was expected to be a close game between two evenly matched sides.

A round three Championship local derby pitted the Featherstone Rovers against the Bradford Bulls at Post Office Road as both sides sought their second win of the season and hoped to make a move up the league in its early stages.

Featherstone were slight favourites with the bookies due to home advantage but it wasn’t a foregone conclusion according to the bookies as Rovers are struggling to find the form which saw them top the table with ease last season.

It’s early in the season but this game was important for both sides and the result would go some way to showing their intent.

If it wasn’t for the London Broncos safety net, Hull FC would find themselves propping up the Super League after the opening six rounds of the competition after an awful start to the season for Tony Smith’s men which saw them welcome the Huddersfield Giants to the MKM Stadium.

The Giants smashed the Airlie Birds out of the Challenge Cup a fortnight ago when they secured a 50-6 home win to progress into the quarter finals, the omens weren’t good for the home side.

A win for the Giants would lift them two places and into sixth spot in the table as they would leapfrog the Rhinos and the Red Devils and the bookies fancied the Giants win as the most likely outcome, the visitors being given a twelve-point start on the coupon.

When the just two points cover the top seven teams in the competition then many games become top of the table clashes and a Friday night encounter between the Leeds Rhinos and Warrington Wolves at Headingley Stadium was one such occasion.

A big win for the Wolves, by a margin of more than twenty points, would see them back to the top of the table and while victory for the Rhinos would see them level with at least three other teams on points, they would need an unachievable winning margin of at least ninety-one points to overtake Wigan on points difference.

The bookies made the home side slight favourites for the win and handicapped them by four points on the coupon, it promised to be a close match between two sides who are still seeking some 2024 consistency.

Facing Wigan Warriors on the back of their first defeat in fifteen games is never ideal, but when you are Adrian Lam’s Leigh Leopards who are looking desperately for a win then it is doubly difficult as the two sides met for the first ‘Battle of the Borough’ in 2024.

A win by four points or more would put Wigan back to the top of the pile with a game in hand, a win for the Leopard wouldn’t improve their league position but would edge them a little further away from potential danger.

The bookies weren’t expecting a runaway win as the Leopards edge closer to their first win of the season, and they only gave the home side a twelve-point start on the handicap coupon, expecting that it might be a closer affair than many commentators and tipsters.

A home win for the London Broncos would not only be their first points of the season but it would also lift them off the bottom of table and above the Castleford Tigers, but the Huddersfield Giants travelled south to the capital with other ideas as they needed to secure a win to keep them in touch with the league’s top sides.

No-one, bookies included, gave the home side a ‘snowball in hell’s chance’ of taking the points, the handicap on the Giants was twenty-six points for those who fancy a flutter.

But London will win a game at some point in 2024, and their fans hoped that this might be the one against a side just four places above them in the early season table.

The East Lancashire Road derby pitted the Salford Red Devils against the Leigh Leopards in an Easter Saturday early evening kick off as the side in seventh pace hosted their historical rivals who are currently in ninth after both sides have had an indifferent start to the season.

One of these sides would give their season a kick start with a precious win, the other would remain in the doldrums, the bookies made the home side the slight favourites but after only handicapping them by two points on the coupon they didn’t believe that there would be very much in it.

It was the first time that the two sides had met in 2024, with plenty up to grabs.