The sides currently residing in sixth and seventh in the Championship table, with two wins each out of their opening four games, came together for a fourth round Challenge Cup encounter as the York City Knights hosted Newcastle Thunder for a place in the fifth round.

It was an eagerly anticipated encounter between two sides who appeared evenly matched on paper.

  

After sweeping aside the challenges of Bridgend Blue Bulls, The British Army and York Acorn, The Royal Navy came up against Betfred Championship opposition in the shape of the Batley Bulldogs who made their first appearance in this season’s competition.

The victors would join the North Wales Crusaders and eight other sides in the fifth-round draw of five matches with a chance to take on a Super League side in round six.

Rochdale were massive favourites for the win and to make progress but there would be no telling the Navy that they should be the underdogs.

Batley were playing up the slope in the first half.

An unbeaten Salford Red Devils, with one eye on the top of the table, travelled to the MKM Stadium to take on a Hull FC side with one win in their opening two games and who had aspiration on finishing the weekend in the top half of the table.

Jake Connor was back in the black and white after serving a one match ban, and Deon Cross was on the bench for the Red Devils with Dan Sarginson starting in the centres.

FC were slight favourites with the bookies, but the Red Devils had only received a four-point start on the coupon.

Either Hull Kingston Rovers or the Castleford Tigers would break their 2022 Super League points duck as the two sides came together for a TV game at Craven Park with a chance of ending the evening in seventh place and giving their start to the season a big boost although the losers knew that a loss would increase the pressure on their players and coaching staff with a very poor start to the year’s competition.

Hull KR were slight favourites for the win but had only been given a two-point start on the coupon, it was likely to be a war of attrition as the two sides looked to grind out the all-important win.

The draw for the fifth round of the 2022 Betfred Challenge Cup will take place at the Leigh Sports Village and will be live on Premier Sports at the conclusion of their coverage of the fourth round game between the Leigh Centurions and the Widnes Vikings.

The draw will be conducted by Emma Louise Jones, Kyle Amor and Kevin Brown, who will all be part of the Premier Sports team for the match presentation.

The Leeds Rhinos returned to Emerald Headingley still seeking their opening win of the 2022 Super League campaign and things didn´t get any easier as they came up against last season´s Minor Premiers and the side widely tipped for a second consecutive Grand Final appearance, the Catalans Dragons.

There were a couple of changes for home coach Richard Agar who replaced Donaldson with O´Connor and brought Dwyer back after his one game suspension, and after sneaking a win against Wakefield Trinity last week Steve McNamara brought Davies and Jullien along with Seguir on the bench.

The Rhinos knew that a four-point win would lift them into sixth, but the Dragons needed to win by well over forty to alter their league position.

Widnes Vikings travelled to the Tetley Stadium in Dewsbury to take on the Rams in the full knowledge that a win of any description would lift them above Featherstone Rovers into the top spot after four rounds of the Betfred Championship.

A win for the home side would lift them up the table to tuck in just below halfway.

Rams coach Lee Greenwood could name almost the same squad as last time out, but Widnes were without the services of influential half-back Danny Craven along with Joe Edge, Joe Lyons and Shane Grady all named in the seventeen.

Few people could see beyond a win for the Chemics.

The only Sunday afternoon Championship fixture to survive the storms sweeping across the United Kingdom was the game at the LNER where two sides with two wins out of three, the York City Knights and the Leigh Centurions, clashed with an eye on taking second spot in the league.

The weather for those travelling from Leigh was atrocious as the tail end of Storm Eunice passed through and Storm Franklin breezed in, and it would be down to who would play the conditions the best as the pitch was deemed to be fit for the game to go ahead.

Two sides seeking their first win of the 2022 campaign met in the South of France as the Catalans Dragons, who lost to the Champions in the opening round played hosts to Wakefield Trinity who were narrowly defeated by Hull FC last time out.

Steve McNamara had been forced into a number of changes with Laguerre, Dazaria and Goudemand in for Davies, Napa, and Dudson while Trinity made wholesale changes as they were without the suspended Reece Lyne along with Miller, Gaskell, Fifita, and Tanginoa, none of whom had travelled with the squad to France.

Neither the pundits nor the bookies could see past a Dragons win.

After spending the week on top of the pile, the Huddersfield Giants had a home game against a Hull KR side who were looking for their first points after an opening round loss against the Wigan Warriors.

Toulouse Olympique XIII collapsed under the Giants pressure last weekend but Tony Smith´s side were likely to be a much tougher prospect.

The Giants had Jermaine McGillvary and Ricky Leutele back in the side after they missed last weeks trip to Toulouse, while KR would have to go into battle without the services of Lachlan Coote and Albert Vete.

It was a bittersweet occasion at the MKM Stadium as St Helens were in town for the first Steve Prescott Trophy match of the season against a Hull FC side in a city which was grieving the passing of league legend Johnny Whiteley MBE, one of the cities most famous sons.

Channel 4 were in attendance for their second Super League Saturday lunchtime broadcast, looking to replicate the great viewing figures which they achieved for last week´s season opener.

FC were without the services of suspended Andre Savelio and Jake Connor while Saints were missing Will Hopoate who hadn´t recovered from a rib injury suffered last time out, and he was replaced by Josh Simm.

As storm Eunice continued to wreak havoc across the kingdom a hoard of hardy souls braved the gales and occasional snowstorm and descended on the DW Stadium to see the Wigan Warriors take on a Leeds Rhinos side who had battled the elements to cross the Pennines in search of their first win of the campaign.

The visitors were forced into five changes from last weeks side who suffered late defeat at the hands of Warrington with Bentley, Myler, Fusitu´a, Dwyer and Martin all missing from a side which included Blake Austin, Liam Tindall and Morgan Gannon.

The only change for Matt Peet´s Warriors side was the replacement of the injured Iain Thornley as they looked for two on the bounce at the start of the 2022 season.

After their fightback win over the Leeds Rhinos last time out, Daryl Powell had his first home fixture as Warrington Wolves coach as the welcomed his old club, the Castleford Tigers, under their new coach Lee Radford as the visitors looked for their first win of the season after last weeks loss to the Salford Red Devils.

Powell shuffled his pack making plenty of changes to compensate for the loss of the suspended Oliver Holmes, Daryl Clark who suffered a head knock against Leeds and late withdrawal Mike Cooper through illness.

The Tigers were without half back and goal kicker Danny Richardson who was injured in last week’s loss to Salford.

Round 3 of the Betfred Championship concluded with Leigh Centurions, who lost to Featherstone on TV last week, hosting a Bradford Bulls outfit looking to bounce back after losing to Sheffield.

An average of 531,000 across the 12pm-2:45pm slot watched yesterday's Leeds v Warrington clash in the Super League on Channel 4.



A match average audience at an even higher level of 631,000 is being reported.

Points were hard to come by in Round Three of the Betfred Championship as six of the seven matches took place on Sunday afternoon, with an early kick-off between Workington and Featherstone Rovers and the other five games underway at three o´clock.

Unbeaten Barrow were at home to Newcastle with Widnes also looking for their third consecutive win on the road at Halifax.

Batley entertained York, Dewsbury hosted Sheffield and Whitehaven made the long journey south to take on London.

The final game of the opening round of Super League XXVII was the encounter between two sides who were hoping and planning for a big improvement in 2022 as Wakefield Trinity hosted Hull FC as two sides who finished in the bottom half of the table last year looked for a confidence boosting opening weekend win.

A win by over twenty-eight points would see them end the opening weekend at the top of the fledgling table but either of the coaches, Willie Poching or Brett Hodgson, would simply be delighted with a victory and a game free of injuries.

After defeating the British Police and Pilkington Recs in the opening two rounds, Conference League Premier Division Siddal had their sights set on a Betfred Challenge Cup upset as they travelled to Hunslet to take on the Parksiders from Betfred Championship One, in front of the BBC cameras and with a fourth-round game away at either the Swinton Lions or North Wales Crusaders as the prize on offer.

With entry just a fiver on the gate, the home side were hoping for a bumper crowd to cheer them to victory on the road to Tottenham as they looked to avoid slipping on a proverbial banana skin, and avoiding a cup upset.

Hunslet are twice winners, the last time in 1934, but Siddal have never made it past the fourth-round.

Stade Ernest Wallon became the latest ground to stage a Betfred Super League match as Toulouse Olympique welcomed Huddersfield Giants; their first opponents in the competition.

The team from Languedoc earned their place as the second French team in Super League Europe by beating Featherstone Rovers in last year's Million Pound Game.



With minimal recruitment to add to the squad which achieved the promotion, the question on most observers' lips was: could they compete at this level and would they secure a place beyond this season, or go straight back down to the Championship? Coach Sylvain Houles was confident in his players, apart from the unsettled Mark Kheirallah, whose full-back spot was filled by new captain Tony Gigot.

Stade Ernest Wallon became the latest ground to stage a Betfred Super League match as Toulouse Olympique welcomed Huddersfield Giants; their first opponents in the competition after the team from Languedoc earned their place as the second French team in Super League Europe by beating Featherstone Rovers in last year's Million Pound Game.



With minimal recruitment to add to the squad which achieved the promotion, the question on most observers' lips was: could they compete at this level and would they secure a place beyond this season, or go straight back down to the Championship? But coach Sylvain Houles was confident in his players, apart from the unsettled Mark Kheirallah, whose full-back spot was filled by new captain Tony Gigot.