Leeds Rhinos have announced the appointment of Rohan Smith as new head coach at Emerald Headingley as the ex-Bradford Bulls coach (70% win rate over 20 games in 2016-7) and son of Rugby League coaching legend Brian Smith.

The forty-year-old will start immediately and has been given a three-and-a-half-year contract which will take him through until at least the end of the 2025 season.

It is understood that interim coach Jamie Jones-Buchanan will remain in charge for Friday’s game against Toulouse and for the round eleven match against Hull KR.

The final game of Round Nine of Super League, the Bank Holiday Monday late afternoon kick-off, saw a Hull FC side still smarting from their derby loss on Friday come up against a Warrington Wolves side who find themselves in the bottom half of the table after a poor recent run.

The winners of todays game would find themselves in fifth place in the table, but it was the home side who were given a two-point start on the handicap coupon in what promised to be a close competition between two sides who both came into the game looking for some consistency to stabilise their seasons.

After thrashing the Leeds Rhinos in the Challenge Cup earlier in the season, the Castleford Tigers came into Easter Mondays Round Nine West Yorkshire derby match with high expectations of a repeat performance to lift themselves closer to safety and pile the misery on Rhinos interim coach Jamie Jones-Buchanan.

The home side had James Clare in for a rested Greg Eden, and young speedster Jason Qareqare on the bench while in the absence of many first choices a youthful Rhinos gave debuts to Max Simpson and most exciting for the Leeds faithful, Jack Sinfield, as both looked to start what they hope will be long Leeds careers.

The bookies gave the Rhinos an eight-point start on the handicap coupon but a win for the Tigers could lift them as high as sixth, the Rhinos unable to improve their league position with a win but it would edge them closer to safety from relegation.

Super League may have been marketing the Easter programme as a "Rivals Round", but all eyes were on the Championship on Sunday evening when Workington Town travelled to Whitehaven for a traditional Cumbrian derby in their second meeting of the year.

Town - promoted from League 1 last year - made the trip firmly rooted to the foot of the table and still looking for their first win of the season, while their hosts were three places above them with two wins from seven games.

Coach Chris Thorman was brutally honest and admitted that the squad he'd brought up from League 1, and assembled since promotion, "wasn't good enough".

He had added two loan players to the line up, while stressing he has "faith" in his group of players.

Round Eight of the Betfred Championship, the Easter round, took place over Friday, Saturday and Sunday with four games on Friday, two on Saturday and the Cumbrian derby between Whitehaven and Workington scheduled to take place on Sunday evening.

Friday’s games saw Leigh at Widnes, Featherstone against Barrow, the heavy woollen derby between Batley and Dewsbury and Halifax away at the Bradford Bulls.

The two games on Sunday were with staggered kick-offs with Sheffield hosting London and York facing Newcastle.

The game of the round in the Betfred Championship was the second against third encounter as Featherstone Rovers entertained the surprise package of 2022, Barrow Raiders, with both sides having plenty to play for.

A win for Rivers would see them go back to the top, jumping ahead of the Leigh Centurions who recorded a big win over Widnes during the earlier kick-off, while a Barrow win would see them level on points with their hosts at the end of the round.

As the sun started to dip, Mark Kheirallah made his second appearance for Featherstone against a Barrow side packed with experience.

Top were taking on second in the final Rivals round game in front of a full house at the Totally Wicked Stadium as the Champions St Helens took on one of the major challengers to their crowd, the arch enemy, Wigan Warriors.

Whoever picked up the two points today would be two points clear at the top of the league ahead of Easter Monday´s clashes but Wigan would have to do it without Zak Hardaker who was dropped, for disciplinary reasons, by coach Peet while Saints were without the injured Will Hopoate.

Kristian Woolf knew that a win this afternoon would be a big boost for St Helens but if Wigan could pick up the points in the oppositions lair, then they would be flying high.

A city was on tenterhooks as fifth placed Hull FC made the short journey to Craven Park to face a Hull KR side who are currently in eighth spot but who have secured themselves a Challenge Cup semi-final spot in three weeks’ time.

KR were looking for a fourth consecutive win and with home advantage the bookies had them as narrow favourites to take down the Black & Whites, secure bragging rights and lift themselves level on points with their arch enemy.

On paper it couldn´t have been closer, a Good Friday feast for the Rugby League watching nation.

With the Leeds Rhinos languishing in second bottom spot and the Huddersfield Giants having a fantastic start to the season, there was only one possible winner as the two West Yorkshire sides came together for the Rivals round at the start of the Easter weekend.

With Wigan and St Helens meeting tomorrow the Giants had a chance of enduing round eight in second position but the Rhinos knew that should Toulouse spring a surprise and put one over the Catalans Dragons in the first ever Super League French derby, then Jamie Jones-Buchanan´s side could go into the weekend at the bottom of the pile with a game against Castleford to look forward to on Monday afternoon.

The bookies were, however, a little nervous and only gave the Rhinos a two-point start on the handicap coupon, they were expecting it to be closer than many Leeds fans dared hope.

Super League kicked off on 29 March 1996 with a French team in the comp when short-lived Paris St Germain hosted Sheffield Eagles in the new competition's first game of the summer era.

Now, 26 years and two weeks later, the league saw it's first all-French derby when Toulouse Olympique visited Perpignan's Stade Gilbert Brutus to take on Catalan Dragons in the Easter "rivals round".

Think you know Rugby League? Believe that you can predict the winners of every game in the Super League Rivals Round? Fancy your chances of winning a signed Super League shirt? Then read on.

Super League have launched a predictors site for the Rivals round which takes place as the coming Round 8 of fixtures on Thursday and Friday and you have a chance to use your skill and knowledge to be in with a chance of winning the prize.

With Hull KR, St Helens and the Huddersfield Giants already confirmed for the 2022 Challenge Cup Semi-Final double-header at Elland Road, all that remained was for Wakefield Trinity and Wigan Warriors to do battle for the final spot in Sunday afternoon´s game at Belle Vue.

Trinity were missing a handful of stars including superstar winger Tom Johnstone, Jacob Miller and David Fifita but Wigan were close to full strength for this crucial cup tie.

The bookies favoured the nineteen-time cup winners from Wigan as they game Wakefield an eight-point start on the handicap coupon, but most pundits were struggling to choose between the two sides, especially after a recent great run of games from Trinity which has seen them into the top half of the table and eliminating Warrington in the previous round of the cup.

The draw for the semi-finals of the 2022 Betfred Challenge Cup was made at half time during the Wakefield versus Wigan game to decide how the teams would line up for the Elland Road double-header on the 7^th May.

One of todays sides would be joining Hull KR, St Helens and the Huddersfield Giants in the semi-final draw, the other three hoping that they would avoid the seemingly unbeatable St Helens in the draw.

The balls were draw by Andrew Henderson and Kevin Brown.

Both games will be shown live on the BBC with the first at 15:30 and the second kicking off at 17:00.

Huddersfield Giants welcomed Hull FC to the John Smith’s Stadium, with a place in the Betfred Challenge Cup semi-finals at stake.

Both teams had won four and lost two of their preceding six games, with today’s winners joining Hull KR and St Helens at Leeds United’s Elland Road ground on 7 May,  alongside the winners of Sunday’s tie between Wakefield Trinity and Wigan Warriors.

When Saints were drawn away at the Catalans Dragons in the quarter finals of the 2022 Challenge Cup, most people saw the repeat of last season’s Grand Final as likely being the producer of the eventual winner of the competition.

The Dragons had May, Julien and Romano all starting as changes from the side which lost in to the Saints in round one, while for Saints only difference was the swapping of Sironen for Mata´utia in the starting thirteen with Norman being brought in on the bench.

Saints, of course won last year´s season culminating Old Trafford meeting for the games ultimate prize, and the two sides also met for the opening match of the season which Saints won more comfortably by 28-8, but this was a meeting in the south of France and in front of a notoriously hostile and partisan home crowd.

Castleford Tigers, who recorded a confident victory away at the Leeds Rhinos in their round six game, headed to Hull KR for a quarter final against a Robins side who had a close call against the Leigh Centurions before making progress themselves.

The sides currently reside in eighth and tenth places in the Super League table with the bookies slightly favouring the home side as they gave the Tigers a two-point start on the handicap coupon, but with the odds so close there really was little to choose between the sides coached by Tony Smith and Lee Radford.

In the last couple of matchups, the Tigers knocked the Robins out of the cup last season but the red and whites won the round three game in 2022 Super League.

 

Well established club Widnes - founded in 1875 - were the visitors at Kingston Park, still a relatively new venue rugby league as the home of Newcastle Thunder, on the Monday night championship game televised by Premier Sports The teams drew on their previous meeting and always looked likely too produce a tight game again.

Widnes were the team with the early pressure on the back of a penalty and set restart conceded by the Thunder.

Round Seven of the Betfred Championship 2022 threw up a few surprises as the sides continued to jostle for places in the early season table.

Leigh faced Dewsbury on Friday night in the Premier Sports game while five clashes took place on Sunday ahead of the Monday night televised game between Newcastle and Widnes.

Sunday saw Workington at home to York, Barrow face Batley  and Featherstone at home to Sheffield while Halifax entertained the third Cumbrian side Whitehaven and Bradford travelled down the length of the M1 to play the London Broncos.

An intriguing mid-table Sunday afternoon encounter saw a ninth placed Wakefield Trinity host a Salford Red Devils side occupying sixth spot in the table with a chance to leapfrog the three sides ahead of them and complete round seven in the top half of the table.

Salford were nilled by the Wigan Warriors in the Challenge Cup last weekend while Trinity recorded a second consecutive win over the Warrington Wolves to make progress in that competition and as a result the bookies made the home side the favourites giving the Red Devils a six-point start on the coupon.

It was a day of history at the Eirias Stadium in Colwyn Bay as the North Wales Crusaders welcomed Cornwall RLFC for their first ever fixture after their formation from the ashes of Hemel Stags/Ottawa Aces in 2021.

Under the coaching of the vastly experienced Neil Kelly, the games newest side made the six-hour journey from their base in Penryn to the North Wales Coast for the inaugural fixture having had a bye in the opening round of the League One competition.

The Crusaders got a big win away at Rochdale last week and were strong favourites to spoil the Cornwall party and collect the Celtic Shield.