It’s the time of year when Australia comes to a standstill, as Wednesday becomes Origin day, and people crack open the tinnies and don their colours for the greatest clash in world rugby league as the Maroons took on the Blues in the opening match of the 2024 State of Origin.

Queensland have won the last two series by two games to one so New South Wales were hoping for to go one up at the Accor Stadium in Sydney with the bookies finding it almost too close to call, giving the Blues a two point start on the handicap coupon.

It was Billy Slater’s New South Wales against Michael Maguire’s Queensland and the whole of Australia was holding its collective breath.

We were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of England, Great Britain and Leeds Rhinos legend Rob Burrow at the age of just forty-one years from complications of the Motor Neurone Disease which he has suffered so bravely and inspirationally since his diagnosis almost five years ago.

Rob passed today at Pinderfield's Hospital in Wakefield after a short illness after he was admitted earlier in the week and he leaves behind his dedicated wife Lindsey, along with his three children Macy, Maya and Jackson who have been so brave over the last few years and inspirational in their support of Dad and family man Rob.

Rob retired from rugby league in 2017 after sixteen successful seasons at his only club, Leeds Rhinos where he made 492 appearances and scored 195 tries and 157 goals.

During his club career he won eight Super League Grand Finals, two Challenge Cups, three World Club Challenge Cups, three League Leaders Shields, two Harry Sunderland Trophies, three selections for the Super League Dream Team and an MBE in the 2021 Queens New Years Honours List.

The was a perfect professional, feared and admired by all in the game, able to play way beyond his stature and weight, and a fabulous representative of the game in the public eye.

Another Sunday afternoon, another loss for the London Broncos, and another win for the Salford Red Devils as they retake their place in the top six which had been temporarily lost to the Leeds Rhinos yesterday teatime, or so all the pundits, fans, and bookmakers predicted.

Having made the journey to the AJ Bell Stadium, London were given a thirty-two-point start on the handicap coupon as a landslide victory was predicted for the Red Devils on a glorious afternoon in Salford.

A win for Salford would lift them back to sixth spot in the table, two clear of the Rhinos in seventh, a win of any type for the visitors would lift them off the bottom of the table and push Hull FC into the basement position.

The West Yorkshire derby had it all to play for as Castleford Tigers travelled the short distance to Headingley to take on the arch enemy the Leeds Rhinos as both sides desperately needed the two points on offer.

The visitors couldn’t improve their league position with a win but could increase the gap between themselves and the bottom two club while the Rhinos knew that a win by more than twelve points would lift them into the top six, at least for the next twenty hours.

The Rhinos were handicapped by ten on the coupon, the bookies thinking that it would be a Rhinos win but not necessarily a convincing one.

The round thirteen Saturday afternoon fixture saw a top of the table clash between a second placed Wigan Warriors side needing an eighteen-point win to go top of the table, against the third placed Warrington Wolves who knew they could join St Helens on twenty league points with a victory.

Despite their closeness on the league table the bookies believed that this would be a comfortable victory for the away side as they gave the Wolves a fourteen-point start on the handicap coupon.

It was a packed Halliwell-Jones which welcomed the two sides to the field for a mouthwatering clash as the they met for the first time in 2024, a dress rehearsal for next weekend’s Challenge Cup final at Wembley.

Only two league points separated St Helens and the Catalans Dragons coming into tonight’s clash at the Totally Wicked Stadium with the visitors knowing that a win would lift them level on points with the league leaders, and an improbably large win, by sixty-one points or more, would see them to the top of table on points difference.

Saints were given a ten-point handicap on the coupon which lent some credibility to a bounce back Dragons win after their home defeat at the hands of the Warrington Wolves last weekend.

The league leaders were without the inspirational Jonny Lomax who is out with a hand injury and who was replaced by Moses Mbye at stand-off allowing new stand in skipper Jack Welsby to remain at full back.

A win by a margin of twenty-six points or more would move Wigan Warriors to the top of the table with a game in hand, all that stood in their way was the unpredictable Salford Red Devils who have the chutzpah to beat anyone on their day.

Salford needed the win to maintain their push for the top of the table and to ensure that they spend more time in the top six, defying critics and pundits alike as they continue to make the most out of a small budget and ever smaller playing staff.

Wigan were the favourites for the win with a ten point handicap on the coupon, Salford the clear underdogs, a position that they thrive on.

Still on cloud nine after securing their place in the Challenge Cup final, Warrington Wolves made the trip to the south of France to take on a Catalans Dragons side with the chance to join St Helens at the top of the table the spoils for the victor.

It wasn´t an easy game to call, the bookies giving Warrington a four-point start on the handicap coupon, the normal weighting in favour of the home side due to their home advantage.

Coach Burgess kept the same starting seventeen that beat the Giants in the cup last weekend, Steve McNamara had Theo Fages back in the side in place of Jayden Nikorima who was moved to the bench, but McIlorum and McMeeken were missing from the squad with injuries.

A round twelve encounter between joint league leaders, St Helens, and seventh placed Leeds Rhinos was likely to be a one-sided affair with the bookies giving the Rhinos a fourteen-point start on the coupon despite the Rhinos having Brodie Croft and Harry Newman back in their starting line-up along with on-loan Matty Russell.

Saints would end the night two points clear of the chasing pack of they were to pick up the win, the Rhinos could lift themselves into the top half of the table if they were to grab an unlikely win over the old enemy, something that they haven’t managed since a one-point win in March 2023.

Pre-game there was pessimism amongst the Rhinos fans, expectation amongst those supporting Saints.

When it comes to Women’s Super League it doesn’t get any bigger than a clash between St Helens and the Leeds Rhinos, the top two sides in the game with league leaderships, championships and challenge cup wins between them and a dress rehearsal for next months Challenge Cup Final at Wembley.

Old rivalries were renewed in a match which the bookies struggled to find a favourite, edging towards the home side based on their home advantage.

The game was a curtain raiser for the men’s Super League game to be played this evening but there was every chance that this would be a more thrilling, exciting, and closer match than the one kicking off at eight o’clock.

The RFL and Rugby League Commercial have confirmed that Martin Offiah MBE has accepted an invitation to be Chief Guest at the 2024 Betfred Challenge Cup Finals Day – 30 years since he scored probably the most celebrated try in the long history of Rugby League being played at Wembley Stadium.

Offiah played in four consecutive Wembley Finals for Wigan from 1992-95, in which he scored a total of four tries - including the length of the field spectacular against Leeds in 1994, when he was awarded the Lance Todd Trophy as player of the match.

That try earned him a place on the Rugby League Statue alongside four other greats of the sport which was installed at Wembley in 2015, captured in the celebration of his try which has become equally famous, on his knees with his head in his hands in an instant reflection of the moment.

Huddersfield Giants were looking for a repeat of their Challenge Cup 2022 final appearance, they faced the tough proposition of a game against a Warrington Wolves side who lifted the trophy on their last appearance in a final back in 2019.

The bookies had made Warrington slight favourites for the win and to set up a Wembley final against the Wigan Warriors on the 8th June as they gave Huddersfield a six point start on the handicap coupon.

This was the sides first meeting of the season, Huddersfield trailing their opponents by six points in the league table, all likelihood was that this would be the Wolves afternoon in the sunshine in St Helens.

A place at Wembley on the 8th June, to take on cup holders St Helens, awaited the winners of a mouthwatering encounter between the Leeds Rhinos and Wigan Warriors as the second Challenge Cup semi-final took place at the Totally Wicked Stadium in St Helens.

It couldn’t be closer in the league with both sides currently unbeaten after three rounds of the Women’s 2024 Super League and sat in equal top place and just a small separation in achieved points difference.

Leeds have been the defeated finalists in the last two seasons after back-to-back wins in 2018 and 2019, while the Cherry & Whites have never made it to a Challenge Cup Final, eighty minutes would lead to elation and heartbreak, but few would be brave enough to call the outcome before the kick-off.

Last years defeated finalists, Hull Kingston Rovers, were looking for a return to Wembley as they faced cup kings and twenty times winners, Wigan Warriors, in the first semi-final in Doncaster.

Hull KR won the 2024 meeting between the two sides at the end of April by a convincing 26-10 scoreline and the Robins came into the game determined to repeat last year’s feat of making it to the final and hopefully going one better than last season.

Wigan were the favourites with the bookies, KR being given an eight-point start on the handicap coupon, the odds perhaps being set based on last week’s Super League results.

 

The first of the weekend’s four Challenge Cup semi-finals got underway on Saturday lunchtime as York Valkyrie took on the holders, St Helens, at the Eco-Power Stadium in Doncaster in a game which the bookies couldn’t decide on a favourite.

The York side had illness in the camp with several of their star players missing as they cobbled together a side to match the side who have lifted the Women’s Challenge Cup for the last three seasons.

York were victorious in the league meeting between the two sides in round one when they recorded a 20-16 win in a close game, on paper it really was too close to call.

Katherine Jenkins OBE, the biggest selling classical artist of the 21st Century, will sing the National Anthem at Rugby League’s Finals Day at Wembley Stadium on Saturday 8 June.

The Welsh mezzo-soprano will perform before the finals of both the Men’s and Women’s Betfred Challenge Cup, and will also sing Rugby League’s traditional Wembley hymn, Abide With Me, ahead of the Men’s final which kicks off at 3pm.

Neath-born Katherine is cherished as one of Britain’s most acclaimed singers and is one of the world’s most prolific artists in UK Classical chart history.

She officially confirmed her position as the world’s most successful classical singer after she was crowned ‘The Biggest Selling Classical Artist of the Century’ by Classic FM.

It wasn’t a question of who would win the basement encounter between the London Broncos and Hull FC, it was more a question of how many Hull FC would win by as any notion of defeat for the Black and Whites was simply unthinkable.

The bookies were confident in a win for the away side, giving the Broncos a twelve-point start on the coupon, the Airlie Birds only win in 2024 was the last ditch 28-24 victory over todays opponents when the sides met back at the beginning of March.

FC were undefeated in their last twelve meetings with the London side, a stretch meaning that the Broncos moniker has never defeated a Hull FC side.

London simply didn't stand a chance.

 

The Rhinos filled their boots last week against the London Broncos but round eleven saw them with a daunting trip to the south of France to take on a Catalans Dragons side who were looking for the win to rejoin a cluster of clubs at the top of the table on sixteen league points.

A win for Leeds would lift them into the top six, but a big win could see them go ahead of the Dragons and as high as fourth in the table, but the bookies were favouring a home win, giving the visitors a fourteen-point start on the coupon.

Could the Rhinos make it three wins on the trot to find some sort of consistency or would it be the Dragons who would take their second win in their last five outings after a disappointing couple of rounds.

A win by thirty-eight points or more would move the Wigan Warriors into top spot in the table with a game in hand, all that stood in their way at the John Smith’s Stadium was a Huddersfield Giants side who had still not managed to fire on all cylinders and were bubbling just outside the play-off places.

Wigan were the favourites with the bookies to repeat their victory from early March when they beat the Giants by 30-16 at the DW Stadium, but there was little to choose between the sides with just a four-point start for the home side on the coupon.

It was a cracking afternoon for a fast and open game in the early summer sunshine, twenty-minute water breaks agreed between the sides.

It’s just eleven miles between the home stadia of the Leigh Leopards and Salford Red Devils but a massive nine points on the Super League 2024 table as the home side look to build on the single point which they picked up in last weekend’s draw with the Castleford Tigers while Salford knew that a win would keep them joint top of a congested table.

The bookies had made the home side slight favourites for the win and handicapped them by six points on the coupon but the recent news of the departures of Asiata and Hardaker to Hull FC must have caused some disquiet in the ranks.

Salford won the encounter between the two sides in March by 36-24 but despite the gulf in table points, this was likely to be a close encounter.