Catalans may struggle to add Grand Final glory to this year’s League Leaders Shield success when facing St Helens at Old Trafford. Saints are chasing a hat-trick of victories in the season finale and were simply outstanding in their semi-final triumph over Leeds.
South Africa are in a strong position ahead of Saturday’s series decider against the Lions after last week’s dominant display. The Springboks bounced back from an opening 22-17 defeat to run away with the second Test, outplaying the tourists in a 27-9 triumph.
The British and Irish Lions are expected to get back to winning ways in their final warm-up game before their Test series with South Africa begins next weekend. Warren Gatland’s men fell to the first defeat of their tour on Wednesday as South Africa ‘A’ landed a psychological blow by registering a 17-13 victory at Cape Town Stadium.
The 120th edition of the Challenge Cup takes place on Saturday as Castleford Tigers take on St Helens under the arch of Wembley. The Tigers have not lifted the trophy since 1986 while 12-time winners St Helens are targeting their first cup success since 2008, in only their second final appearance in 13 years.
The British and Irish Lions face their toughest test of the tour so far when they collide with South Africa A on Wednesday. The hosts have named a strong team and elevated the Cape Town clash into an unofficial fourth Test.
Emotions will be running high when the British & Irish Lions visit South Africa this summer looking to avenge a narrow loss from 12 years ago. Since then, they have prevailed 2-1 in Australia and played out a thrilling tied series against the All Blacks in New Zealand.
Exeter are red-hot favourites to retain the Gallagher Premiership trophy but Harlequins may make them work hard for it at Twickenham. Quins showed a never-say-die spirit to overcome a 28-point deficit against Bristol in the semis and their style of play is suited to this home from home.
With the ninth edition of the Women’s Rugby World Cup due to take place in New Zealand, we’ve taken a look at the numbers behind the previous tournaments. A delay until October and November 2022 is not expected to affect the excitement generated by this great spectacle.
The Six Nations title is on the line when France host Scotland in the delayed final match of the 2021 tournament. The match should have been played in February but was delayed because of a Covid-19 outbreak in the France squad, meaning Les Bleus know they need a bonus-point win and a winning margin of at least 21 points to deny Wales the title.
We’ve got Six Nations predictions for the fifth round of fixtures in this year’s tournament and are eyeing a 9/2 treble if they all come good. A lack of spectators hasn’t stopped there from being plenty of thrills and spills and more excitement is expected from this weekend’s crucial clashes.
Wales have had a helping hand from the match officials in winning their first two Six Nations games but are still fancied to give England a tough test in Cardiff. The hosts go into this contest with a much-improved injury situation and can always be relied upon to be fired up for this fixture.
Ireland have shown plenty of courage in Six Nations losses to Wales and France and should now get off the mark when visiting Italy. However, this does not look a vintage Irish team by any means and we don’t think they are capable of running riot at Stadio Olimpico on Saturday.
Ireland showed plenty of spirit in defeat against Wales after going down to 14 men early on and deserve another chance when entertaining France. Les Bleus are now favourites to claim a first Six Nations title since 2010 after thrashing Italy in Rome but this will be a totally different test.
Scotland’s confidence should be sky high after stunning England in their Six Nations opener and they have a good chance of following up with a win over Wales. The Dragons made hard work of edging out an Ireland side reduced to 14 men early on and have been rocked by injury problems ahead of this trip.