Wigan & Hull KR set for ‘unofficial World Club Challenge’

Wigan & Hull KR set for ‘unofficial World Club Challenge’Image source, SWPixImage caption, Matt Peet’s (left) Wigan Warriors and Willie Peters’ (right) Hull KR have faced each other in the past two successive Super League Grand Finals leading up to this year’s Challenge Cup finalByJay FreemanBBC Sport EnglandPublished6 minutes agoIn October, Hull KR capped off a domestic treble by beating Wigan Warriors in the Super League Grand Final at Old Trafford. It was their first-ever Super League title and put the cherry on top of a campaign of dominance.These two titans of the modern men’s game take each other on again this Saturday, this time in the Challenge Cup final.Whereas the 2025 showpiece played out at an unseasonably chilly Wembley, this year the mercury is rising. It should be a final to match the red hot conditions around the country this week.BBC Sport has taken a look at what is at stake as world champions KR face off against a Wigan side hungry to end their trophy drought.2026 Betfred Challenge Cup finalLive on BBC One, Saturday, 14:00 BSTAnything can happen at Wembley – OffiahHull KR continued their stunning 12 months in February as they put in a comprehensive performance to beat NRL premiers Brisbane Broncos to lift the World Club Challenge.As their players held the trophy aloft, it was easy to forget this was a club relegated out of Super League only 10 years ago.Hull KR’s recent pedigree is matched by Wigan Warriors, who themselves won a historic single-season quadruple the year before, including beating then-NRL premiers Penrith Panthers.Pitting these two sides together is akin to letting the two best sides in domestic rugby league tussle for glory according to Wigan legend Martin Offiah, who also predicted that neither side can take their status for granted.”Both these teams have beaten sides in Australia who have been considered the best teams in the world in Penrith Panthers and the Brisbane Broncos,” he told BBC Radio Manchester.”I see this as an unofficial World Club Challenge.”People may say that Wigan are the favourites but you only have to look at 1998 when Sheffield Eagles turned them over to realise that anything can happen at Wembley.”Figure caption, Hull KR beat Warrington 32-12 to reach Challenge Cup final’We now stay right next to the stadium’Hull KR’s trajectory to last season’s remarkable table-topping trophy-winning campaign may have happened quickly, yet the club has been forced to learn just as fast in terms of how to run an elite rugby league operation.Saturday will be their third final in three years, during which time they have both lost and won, including 2023’s defeat by Leigh Leopards and last season’s 8-6 win over Warrington.KR had reached the final in 2015 and were hammered 50-0 by Leeds, yet it was their preparations eight years later which laid the ground work to some much-needed improvements for subsequent final appearances.”In 2023, when we played Leigh, we stayed in a hotel an hour-and-a-half outside London and then we got stuck in traffic coming in,” Hull KR chief executive Paul Lakin told BBC Sport.”The players were on the coach for too long. So now we’re staying at a hotel right next to the stadium where they can visualise and see the stadium.”We replicated that in the Grand Final. We stayed opposite Old Trafford and that’s something that works for us.”So it’s the little learnings really, like making sure that the players are comfortable with it. Traffic is a big one to avoid in London. So we will literally walk to the ground.”Wigan name much-changed squad for Hull KR game