On paper there was only one possible winner as top of the table St Helens made the trip to the John Smith’s Stadium to take on a Huddersfield Giants side who are yet to record their first win of the season after three attempts.

Almost everything was stacked against the Giants and the bookies were certain that Ian Watson would not be getting his first win of the season against the Champions and favourites for 2021.

In the end it was a brave effort by the Giants as Saints, for the first time this season, looked fallible.

Two of the four remaining one-hundred percent sides in Super League 2021 were thrown together at the DW Stadium as the Wigan Warriors took on Castleford Tigers in the opening game of Round Four.

Bevan French was back for the home side and named on the wing as Zak Hardaker retained his place at his favoured position of fullback while Harry Smith replaced the injured Thomas Leuluai in the halves.

The Tigers had Jordan Turner and Jake Trueman in the halves with Brad Hepi starting as prop and Brad Martin on the bench for his first appearance in 2021.

Top of the ladder, the Penrith Panthers, were first up in round seven of the NRL as they looked to extend their lead at the top to four points with a victory over the Newcastle Knights at the BlueBet Stadium.

The Panthers went into the game with the leagues only unbeaten record in 2021 but the Knights would have been chanting the mantra all week that that Penrith must lose at some point, and why not tonight.

Over the years there has been very little to choose between these two sides and last time out was no exception as the sides drew 14-14 when ten minutes of golden point extra time finished without a point being scored.

Six Betfred Championship games over two days delivered four close games and a couple of runaway winners as Round Two occurred behind closed doors.

The remaining fixture, and interesting looking tie between Toulouse Olympique XIII and the London Broncos was ruled a 24-0 win for the French side after the Broncos made the decision not to travel to fulfil their fixture due to the pandemic.

On Saturday Batley played Oldham while Widnes welcomed Dewsbury with the remaining games on Sunday which saw staggered kick-offs for online coverage with; Swinton v Featherstone, Whitehaven v Newcastle, Bradford v Halifax and York v Sheffield.

The final game of round three of Super League 2021 saw the Warrington Wolves travel to Hull to take on an FC side who started the game sitting pretty in second place in the table and who knew that a big points win would see them end the round at the top of the pile.

Talisman Marc Sneyd was back for the home side after missing last week’s cup win over Featherstone Rovers, but they were without the services of Manu Ma’u who is out for up to a month with a calf problem.

The Wolves were missing Tom Lineham who is serving the first of a three-match ban but did have Gareth Widdop back in their side for the trip over the Pennines.

After not kicking a ball in 2020 the Women’s Super League was back in 2021 with a twelve-team league consisting several new sides as the protagonists looked to emulate the Leeds Rhinos who beat Castleford Tigers in the 2019 Grand Final.

Two venues were in use for the opening four fixtures played on Sunday afternoon with the feature game being between the Wigan Warriors and new side for 2021, the Warrington Wolves at Victoria Park in Warrington, the first game of a double header which would later see Bradford Bulls take on St Helens.

The Salford Red Devils, one of four sides without a win so far this season in Super League had the daunting task of the first trip to the south of France after the Catalans Dragons returned to play their first home game at the Stade Gilbert Brutus for 190 days.

The Red Devils came into the game off the back of a win in the cup last weekend but were propping up the Super League table, and were up against an almost full strength Catalans Dragons side sitting in fifth place in the table, their only missing player being Joel Tomkins.

The Dragons were strong favourites for the win with the bookies, but Salford can be unpredictable.

Two teams without a league point between them met at Hull College Craven Park with Hull Kingston Rovers taking on the Huddersfield Giants for the chance to jump up the table.

KR were eliminated from the Challenge Cup last weekend in that incredible game against Castleford Tigers which went into multiple periods of golden point extra time while the Giants progressed thanks to a big win over Leigh Centurions on Sunday afternoon.

Two evenly matched and struggling sides were ready for an exciting match for the SKY cameras.

Wigan Warriors against the Leeds Rhinos is always one of the most eagerly anticipated games of the season but recent meetings in Super League have gone the way of the Warriors with the Rhinos last recording a victory in August 2017.

The Rhinos did, however, win the last meeting between the two sides when they met in the Challenge Cup semi-final last season.

The Rhinos unavailability crisis deepened at Tuesday night’s disciplinary meeting when Zane Tetevano was handed a four-game suspension for a dangerous tackle on Theo Fages, on top of the mounting injury crisis which kept the without twelve first teamers for the losing trip to St Helens for last week’s Challenge Cup tie.

Wigan had Liam Farrell and Tommy Leuluai back in their starting line-up but were without superstar Bevan French, while one bit of good news for the Rhinos was the announcement that new signing Kyle Eastmond would start the game in the halves.

Before the game the fans of Leigh Centurions and Huddersfield Giants would tell you that the Challenge Cup third round calendar saved the best until last as the two Super League sides came together at the Leigh Sports Village for a game where the pundits were having difficulty to pick the winner.

Both sides found themselves winless at the start of the 2021 season, and this game was about kick-starting their Super League season, as well as progressing through to face St Helens in the Cup quarter finals.

The Giants were slight favourites with the bookies as Ian Watson looked to repay some of the faith showed in him by his chairman, but John Duffy was under the same pressure as he coached his side to both put on a good show, and secure the win.

Two sides from the wrong end of the NRL ladder met at the Leichhardt Oval in Sydney as thirteenth placed West Tigers took on a North Queensland Cowboys side who are languishing one place above bottom spot and who are winless in the competition so far.

Both coaches knew that another loss would be another nail in their 2021 season and with Wests having won the previous two encounters between the sides they were favourites with the bookies to pick up their second win of the season.

A big points win would have lifted them towards the middle of the table and pushed the Cowboys to the bottom of the pile, but a Cowboys win by twenty-two or more would lift them above the Tigers.

The second of the afternoons double-header at the Totally Wicked Stadium pitted the Catalans Dragons against Wakefield Trinity as the 2018 Challenge Cup winners took on the side who last won the trophy in 1963 and were last at Wembley in 1968.

The Dragons have an unbeaten record in Super League in 2021 while Wakefield have lost both of their opening fixtures, the ‘home’ side therefore were clear favourites for the bookies but the visitors were boosted by the news that free-scoring winger Tom Johnstone had been declared fit after suffering a head knock last time out.

The draw for the fourth round of the Betfred Challenge Cup was made at half time in todays fifth Challenge Cup tie between the Catalans Dragons and Wakefield Trinity.

There were only four individual names in the hat with Castleford, Wigan, Salford and St Helens already certain of their progression, the remainder of games still being either/or as they are yet to be completed.

These games will take place over the weekend of the 8^th and 9^th of May with two games to be selected by the BBC for terrestrial broadcast, one game likely to be on The Sportsman and the final game on OuRLeague.

Sadly the games will be played on the weekend before any fans are allowed back into stadiums, but those sides who progress into the semi-finals will look forward to welcoming back their fans.

The BBC must have been ‘chomping at the bit’ to announce their first-choice game for terrestrial television broadcast as soon as St Helens v.

Leeds Rhinos was pulled out of the draw machine as the defending Cup winners were pitted against the Super League Champions.

What they didn’t account for was the injury devastation which would hit the Rhinos in the early weeks of the season and make Saints massive favourites to pick up the win and make progress through to the fourth round with very little difficulty.

The Rhinos travelled to the Totally Wicked Stadium with very little expectation of getting a result, while complacency could have been Saints main concern prior to the 14:30 kick off with the game being broadcast live to the nation on the BBC.

There were debuts for King Vuniyayawa and Morgan Gannon for the Rhinos against an almost full-strength Saints side.

In any normal season the York City Knights would have been delighted with a third round Challenge Cup tie against the Cup Kings, Wigan Warriors, but with no crowds allowed inside their shiny new stadium you couldn’t help but be disappointed for them.

The home side were given a massive twenty-eight point start on the coupon against a Wigan side who have comfortably won their opening two Super League games and you could get 20/1 on a York win while Wigan were 1/33.

No-one gave the hope side a ‘snowball in hells’ chance of the win.

It was the first meeting between the two sides in thirty-five years.

An all Super League tie between Hull Kingston Rovers and the Castleford Tigers was the opening fixture of the third round of the Betfred Challenge Cup as the road to Wembley started for the sides from the top-flight.

It was the first competitive game at Craven Park for 390 days, still without supporters in the ground, as clubs returned to their home grounds for the cup competitions after playing last season’s regular weekly rounds at shared venues.

The Tigers were the big favourites for the game, the Robins being given a fourteen point start on the coupon and before kick-off you could get 10/1 on Castleford winning the competition while Hull KR were a more generous 40/1 to lift the Challenge Cup at Wembley on the 17^th July, nothing could have prepared us for what we were about to witness.

Top spot was a ‘long-shot’ prize for the South Sydney Rabbitohs as they opened round five of the NRL with a game against a Brisbane Broncos side who needed the win to keep in touch with the high fliers in an intriguing match at Stadium Australia in Sydney between fourth and tenth on the ladder.

Wayne Bennett was up against Kevin Walters in a fixture which has traditionally favoured the visitors and in which honours were shared last season, when both sides won their home matches.

Benji Marshall was named in the starting line up for Souths as both sides made a number of changes with the home side looking to build upon their impressive nilling of the Bulldogs last time out, while the Broncos sought to bounce back from their heavy loss to the Storm.

One year, twenty-four days, and twenty-one hours after the last tackle was made on the 8^th March 2020, the Betfred Championship finally got underway as the Halifax Panthers hosted the London Broncos in the opening fixture of the opening round.

Seven fixtures were scheduled for the Easter weekend with new boys the Newcastle Knights closing out the round with a Sunday evening clash with the Widnes Vikings at Kingstone Park in north Newcastle.

It was a pleasure to be back, despite the lack of crowds, and all games being streamed to season ticket holders in their living rooms.

Huddersfield Giants were looking for their first win as they wrapped up the Mose Masoe round at the Totally Wicked Stadium with a tough game against a Catalans side who themselves were seeking a second win after their Golden Point victory last weekend.

Jake Wardle, Sam Wood and Michael Lawrence all returned for the Giants who were still without the services of Aidan Sezer, with Samisoni Langi and Gil Dudson into the side for the Dragons.

Despite an awful run of losses, the Giants were only given a two-point start on the coupon against Steve McNamara’s Jekyll and Hyde side.

 

Hull FC provided a convincing and dominant display to take the league points as they kicked off final day of Super League’s second round, at St Helens’ Totally Wicked Stadium against Salford.

The sides traded set for set in a tentative first 10 minutes before Reds half Kevin Brown tried to open it up with a chip over the Hull defence, who nevertheless had the resulting charge covered.