Men’s Hull Kingston Rovers and women’s Wigan Warriors secured Wembley places in the EPCR Challenge Cup final in front of a capacity crowd at York’s LNER community stadium on Saturday.
It was a long awaited final for Humberside’s army of rugby league fans who reached this point in 2023 but did not win. They now face Warrington Wolves in the final on 7 June.
The women’s match saw a head-to-head between Wigan and Leeds Rhinos
Leeds were heading into the game with strong momentum, having won the past 12 meetings of the two sides.
However, Wigan instantly took the lead, with Anna Davies scoring a try at the fifth minute. Davies added to this scoring her second try just seven minutes later.
Wigan’s first try came at the 55th minute from Grace Banks followed by a touchdown from Tally Bryer.
The match ended in a well deserved win for Wigan.
In an interview with BBC Sport, Grace Banks said: “Unbelievable. We’ve worked so hard to build up this foundation to get here. It all worked today, it is just brilliant.
‘’Wembley will be in the back of our mind going into the game against York on Friday. We still need to think about the league. I’m buzzing!”
The men’s match saw a one-sided encounter between Hull Kingston Rovers and Catalan Dragons
James Batchelor sent the Robins up into a 10-0 lead initially making the travelling Hull fans full of hope but Catalan made an immediate hit back Reimis Smith scoring a try for the Dragons.
Hull’s golden boy Magic Mikey Lewis brought back a narrow 16-12 lead before half time.
Lewis contributed 16 points and an amazing run from Jack Broadbent sealed the win leaving a 36-12 victorious win for the Robins.
Burgess, who signed from Salford Red Devils at the start of the year, said the team was all too aware that it had come this far two years ago but to no avail.
He told BBC Sport: “I hope to think myself and the new signings have really added to the squad this year. There’s a good sense of confidence at the minute within the playing group.”
(Featured image credit: Stuart Clark)
