With the Saturday evening game between minor premiers Toulouse Olympique XIII and the York City Knights being postponed due to Covid, there was a six game Betfred Championship calendar of fixtures which were all played out on Sunday afternoon.

There was one late kick off between the Sheffield Eagles and Swinton, but the remainder of the games were traditional three o’clock games with some intriguing fixtures as Halifax travelled to Whitehaven, Featherstone were at London, Bradford were playing the Widnes Vikings and there was a heavy woollen derby between the Batley Bulldogs and Dewsbury Rams, while Newcastle had a trip across country to face Oldham.

Pride was all that Leigh Centurions had to play for in their penultimate game in Super League as they took on a Wakefield Trinity side who could guarantee themselves a ninth placed finish after a late season run of form saw them climb the league from being relegation prospects.

Leigh were looking for their first home win against Trinity since 2005 and made four changes to the side comprehensively beaten by Hull KR last weekend while the visitors arrived without the services of Joe Westerman, Tom Johnstone and Jay Pitts who both missed out through injury.

Wakefield were the nailed-on favourites with the bookies, the home side with a twelve-point start in the coupon.

Castleford travelled to Hull KR this evening with the Roger Millward Trophy, commemorating the 1960s playmaker who graced both clubs, at stake – plus the small matter of securing a place in the title playoffs.

A win by the visitors would cement their current fifth spot and guarantee a play-off berth, while opening the prospect of a fourth place finish.

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A Rovers victory could see them leap over Leeds in sixth to take that fifth spot from the Tigers, at least until the final week.

If the fat lady wasn’t already singing for the Airlie Birds, she was certainly warming up and going through the scales as Hull FC  went into their game against a Wigan Warriors side who are already guaranteed the play-offs and who are now simply sparring for their position in the top six.

FC were without Swift, Bowden and Houghton who were all injured and would start Jordan Johnstone at hooker and Jordan Lane was also in the squad while the Warriors had Oliver Gildart back in their starting line-up.

Both sides lost last time out and both have only won one match in their last five outings, the bookies making the Warriors the favourites on the basis of their league position and despite them losing by 10-6 last week against the Warrington Wolves.

As if there wasn’t enough to play for in a Saints – Leeds game, there was added incentive for both sides as they knew that a win would help them achieve one of their immediate goals, Saints knowing that a win would guarantee them runners up spot, and the Rhinos in the full knowledge that win would guarantee their inclusion in the play-offs.

Saints had Joe Batchelor in the starting line-up for the injured Leeds bound James Bentley, meanwhile the Rhinos were without James Donaldson who withdrew today through illness and Corey Johnson was named on the bench for his first game since September 2019.

Saints were the bookies favourites for the win with the Rhinos being given a twelve-point start on the coupon.

With the Leigh Centurions already relegated from Super League after a disappointing season, all that remained was for them to play for pride and possibly to ruin Hull KR’s season as the two sides met in the final game of the Magic Weekend in Newcastle.

A win for the Robins would lift them to within striking distance of sixth placed Castleford Tigers should Daryl Powell’s side slip up in their closing two games but more importantly for their supporters it would extend their win percentage lead over the Black and White side of the city to secure them a winter of bragging rights over their most ferocious enemies.

It was a full weekend of games as the Betfred Championship reached round twenty, the matches split over Friday and Sunday with Newcastle Thunder and York City Knights playing the Magic Weekend curtain raiser at the start of the weekend.

The remainder of games were played on Sunday with Toulouse Olympique XIII at the Bradford Bulls, Whitehaven at Batley, London playing bottom side Swinton and the Widnes Vikings looking for some joy in an awful season as they took on Oldham.

The game of the afternoon, on paper, was the clash between Featherstone and Halifax with the round being completed by the late kick-off between Sheffield and Dewsbury.

As the Wigan Warriors faced the Warrington Wolves in game five of the Magic Weekend both sides knew that a win would not improve their league position but for the Wolves it would keep them in touch with Saints in the race for second, and for the Warriors it would guarantee them play-off football.

The Wolves were the bookies favourites for a win which would guarantee third spot in the 2021 table and plunge the Warriors into a battle for the remaining three play-off places but should Wigan spring a surprise then they would make it impossible for Hull KR to catch them and knock them out of the top six.

With third against fourth the neutrals were hoping for a similar feast to that which was served up yesterday when top played second.

After yesterdays sensational Magic Weekend games you could be forgiven that the dead rubber between the Huddersfield Giants and Wakefield Trinity was an uninteresting ‘dead rubber’ with both sides safe from relegation, but neither able to trouble the play-off places, but with local pride and bragging rights to play for there was every chance that the opening game of day two from Newcastle would be a cracker.

The sides came into the game level on win percentage and with the Giants on a slightly better points difference than Trinity and that was reflected in the odds with the bookies making the Claret and Golds the slight favourites and handicapping them by four points on the coupon.

A place in the play-off’s was up for grabs as the third game of the Magic Weekend got underway with fifth placed Leeds Rhinos taking on a Hull FC side currently in seventh spot with a win Airlie Birds drawing them level with their opponents on fifty percent win percentage.

Leeds were without the perennially suspended Zane Tetevano and a whole host of injured players which saw Richie Myler moved into the halves and Jack Broadbent at full back.

FC made two changes with Jamie Shaul and Carlos Tuimavave back in their starting line-up as the Black and Whites looked to overcome being bookies underdogs and keep their hopes of a play-off place alive.

With many tasty matches vying for the game of the Magic Weekend, you could be forgiven for anticipating some of the fixtures with more relish than the top of the table tussle between the Catalans Dragons and St Helens, but with the minor premiership still in the balance the second fixture of Saturday afternoon could go a long way to answering the big question.

Saints made just one change from the side that beat the Warrington Wolves last weekend with Kyle Amor coming onto the bench in place of Louis McCarthy-Scarsbrook as the defending Super League champions looked to move within a whisker of the Dragons point percentage.

With both sides having won their last three outings, the bookies made Saints the slight favourites for the win and to stop the Dragons from clinching the League Leaders Trophy for the first time in their history in what could well be a Grand Final dress rehearsal.

Castleford Tigers and Salford Red Devils kicked off the Dacia Magic Weekend at St James Park in their fourth encounter of the season.

Before kick-off, the tally stood at two wins to Cast and one to the Reds Could the Tigers make their top-six play-off hopes a little more secure with a third win? Could the original Red Devils level the record and start their own climb up the table from 11th?

The clash between second placed St Helens and a Warrington Wolves side in third, was on paper the most intriguing game of the Bank Holiday Monday rounds with the opportunity that a win for the home side would lift them within a whisper to their opponents with three games left in the regular season.

The bookies were struggling to separate the two sides but gave Warrington a two-point handicap on the coupon, making them slight favourites for the win.

Both sides will figure in the play-offs but tonights game would give us some indication of who was more likely to be at Old Trafford in 2021.

There was plenty to play for at The Jungle as a Wigan Warriors side seemingly in free-fall after a good start to the season came up against a Castleford Tigers side who are scrapping hard for a place in the play-offs.

A win for the home side would lift them above their visitors and into fourth position in Super League with just three games left until the end of the regular season, but an away win would almost guarantee Wigan a play-off spot.

The Tigers were the favourites with the bookies to continue the Wigan misery with the Warrior having lost their last three matches and not having crossed the whitewash for two-hundred-and-four painful minutes.

Fifth placed Leeds Rhinos, looking to secure a play-off place, travelled to play a Wakefield Trinity side who started the game in tenth position in the Super League but who were safe from relegation worries and starting to find their feet with two wins in their last three outings.

The Rhinos made just one chance from the side which beat Wigan last time out with Callum McLelland  taking the place of Morgan Gannon as he returned from illness while new Trinity coach Willie Poching came into the game with a side primed to overturn the 15-13 defeat suffered earlier in the season.

The Rhinos were odds on with the bookies for the win with the home side being given a six-point start on the handicap coupon.

Toulouse Olympique XIII’s home game against the Batley Bulldogs was again victim of a COVID postponement as the French sides position at the top of the table becomes increasingly stable as they head into the play-offs.

Sunday afternoon therefore saw a six-game round with all games kicking off at three o’clock and some one-sided fixtures on paper such as Halifax against Oldham and Featherstone at Oldham.

There was a mouth-watering tie at York with the City Knights playing the Bradford Bulls while Newcastle were at Dewsbury, Sheffield at London and Widnes travelling up the M6 to Whitehaven.

As Super League 2021 edges ever closer to the play-offs, both Hull FC and the Castleford Tigers knew that a loss in tonight’s fixture could prove disastrous to their play-off hopes as they jockeyed for position inside the all-important top six.

A win for the home side could see them up to fifth and complicate the Tigers path to a top six finish, while a win for the visitors would lift them into a minimum of seventh, and depending on the result of the game between Hull KR and Wakefield Trinity, might even see them entering the six.

The Airlie Birds were the bookies favourites for the win but with seventh against eighth it was almost too close to call, the visitors getting just a two-point start on the handicap coupon.

With just five games remaining in the regular rounds of Super League 2021 the race for the all-important top-six was heating up as fourth placed Wigan Warriors hosted a Leeds Rhinos currently sitting in seventh spot, but who knew that a win would lift them into fifth above both Hull clubs.

Wigan were without the suspended Willie Isa but Jai Field and Brad Singleton both returned to the starting line-up alongside a John Bateman who had a one game suspension overturned on appeal, while the Rhinos were without a ill Callum McLelland but with Rhyse Martin, Matt Prior and Cameron Smith all back in the seventeen.

The Warriors were slight favourites for the win with the Rhinos being given a two-point start on the coupon, but there was very little in it for the pundits who were divided on who would take the win to improve their league win percentage.

While defeat for the Leigh Centurions against the Salford Red Devils wouldn’t signal the relegation of the home side it would make their chances of survival increasingly difficult and the likelihood even more remote than it was before kick-off.

Salford themselves aren’t having the best of seasons by their recent standards but a win would at least come close to guaranteeing their position in Super League 2022 as they moved above the Huddersfield Giants and into ninth spot in the league table.

Most neutrals will have been hoping for a Leigh win to at least give them and their supporters some hope, but you can be sure than the supporters of Huddersfield and Wakefield were hoping that Salford would send them to their seventeenth loss of the season.

The game between Newcastle Thunder and the London Broncos was this week’s victim of the dreaded Covid postponement but the remainder of the fixtures all took place on Sunday afternoon with a close game and several runaway wins.

League leaders Toulouse Olympique XIII were away at Oldham in what promised to be a game of one-way traffic as Featherstone took on the Dewsbury Rams with a similar likely outcome.

The Bradford Bulls had a seemingly easy home game against Swinton while the York City Knights took on Whitehaven while Batley hosted the Sheffield Eagles and Halifax Panthers had a tough trip to the Widnes Vikings.