Saints were drawn at home to Hull FC, evoking memories of Ron Hoofe’s memorable commentary line as Quirk streaked down the Knowsley Road side-line to score a late winner against the black and whites back in 1991. Less happily, it reminded me of the last time Saints and Hull were paired together in the Challenge Cup in 2016, when FC romped to a 47-16 win at Langtree Park in what was one of the more calamitous performances of the Keiron Cunningham era. Saints will go into this year’s edition as favourites, however, having seen off Castleford at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle in the last round and sitting as they do, prettily atop the BetFred Super League with 12 wins from 14 outings so far. Meanwhile Hull have toiled somewhat in recent weeks, literally scrapping past Featherstone Rovers in a last 16 tie which they finished with nine men, and sweating on injuries to Albert Kelly, Marc Sneyd, Carlos Tuimavave and Josh Bowden. It might be a good time to play against Lee Radford’s side. However, they are not back-to-back cup winners for nothing and they will not let their grip on the famous old trophy go easily. They have not been beaten in the Challenge Cup since a 24-6 quarter-final defeat to Leeds Rhinos in 2015. And everyone lost to Leeds in 2015. It should be a goody.
Removing all notions of bias the obvious tie of the round is at Warrington, where Shaun Wane’s ale-house mob will be the visitors. The two warm up for that one with a clash at this weekend’s Magic shebang in Newcastle, with both in impressive form. Warrington have won 10 in a row in all competitions after a shaky start to 2018 while the Warriors have not been beaten since….well…..since your very own Saints sent them packing on Good Friday.
Elsewhere Leeds did what Leeds do and landed the plum draw of Leigh at home. The Centurions are the only non-Super League side to have made the last eight after their humbling of Salford Red Devils in the last round. A home draw seems ideal for Leeds but there are rumblings that the tie will have to be played away from Headingley because it clashes with the second test between England and Pakistan at the cricket ground. Not even Gary Hetherington can take on the might of the ECB, so this one could go ahead at Featherstone, who are basically Leeds’ second team anyway so there should be no issues of unfamiliarity for the Rhinos boys.
The final tie sees Huddersfield Giants host Catalans Dragons in a tie which will no doubt be last pick for the television companies, meaning you are likely to see it on either the Thursday or Friday night slot on Sky TV. Unless you choose to do something more sensible like pull out all of your teeth. The Dragons are in rather better form in recent weeks, beating Hull in the league and seeing off both York City Knights and Whitehaven in the cup. They even managed to avoid any serious thrashing at Saints, something which the Giants palpably failed to achieve recently. Yet the Giants have new coach Simon Woolford pulling the strings and their win over Wakefield in the last round serves notice that they might also be on the up. I’m still pulling all my teeth out…
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