Having proved a model of consistency amid the relative chaos of recent seasons, Leeds second-row Rhyse Martin believes the time is right to crown his Headingley career with some serious silverware.

The ultra-dependable 31-year-old has only a solitary Challenge Cup success in 2020 to show for his efforts since moving to the club in 2019, and with his contract up at the end of the year, 2024 may be his last chance to lift more trophies.

But Martin is convinced he has already seen a shift-change in his side’s ability to chisel out precious points after three wins in four matches, culminating in lashttps://content-wordpress.pressassociation.com/wp-admin/media-upload.php?post_id=9499691&type=image&TB_iframe=1t Friday’s fightback – ignited by Martin’s opening try – to beat Leigh from 16 points behind.

“To be able to find that rhythm to pull it back is impressive and it’s something that has got the team through in recent years,” Martin told the PA news agency ahead of Friday’s Super League clash with St Helens.

“Obviously to get a lead and grind it out to get the win is easier on the stress levels and we’ve probably had to find ourselves fighting back from deficits a bit too often for my liking.

“But I think in recent years we might have found a way to lose that game, and also the games against Catalans and Salford, so being able to close out games and get the two points is crucial.

“In previous years we’ve been one win from four, so it’s nice to be in this position. These early wins will help us in the back end of the season. Silverware is what you strive for because it’s what you want to look back on and talk about with your kids.”

Martin has been a virtual ever-present in an otherwise inconsistent Rhinos side over the last three years, playing at centre for much of the 2023 campaign, and adding his accuracy with the boot that saw him equal the world record for consecutive successful kicks in 2022.

But Martin’s status as arguably one of the most underrated players in Super League – and certainly one of its most successful overseas signings – may be on borrowed time with his future beyond the current campaign still unclear.

“I am off contract at the end of the season and at the moment it’s up in the air,” added Martin. “For me, nothing else has changed since I came to the club – I turn up and train hard and play hard.”

Martin, one of a growing number of PNG players in Super League, made no secret of his desire to be involved in a prospective Papua New Guinean franchise in Australia’s lucrative NRL.

Talks on funding a franchise team in Port Moresby are understood to be ongoing and Martin, who has represented his country at two World Cups, said: “If PNG got an NRL team it is something I’d be interested in, 100 per cent.

“I don’t know when that will be, so I don’t know in what capacity. But it would be something to play for them. It would be like playing for Manchester United, one of those massive teams that gets crazy fans everywhere they go. It would be something special.”

Atrium registered the biggest success of his career as he prevailed in a thrilling finish to the Howden Challenge Cup at Ascot.

The stands side was the place to be in the ultra-competitive handicap – the most valuable race on the card – and both Charlie Fellowes’ winner and the in-form Popmaster emerged from the shadows of pacemakers Lethal Levi and Ancestral Land to engage in a titanic tussle in the closing stages.

Ed Walker’s Popmaster was attempting to add to a Listed win he notched up at Newbury last time, but he could not shrug off the Harry Davies-ridden, Highclere-owned Atrium, who got the nod in a photo finish after the two protagonists passed the winning post in unison.

The winner returned an official winning verdict of a nose as he landed an upset at 25-1 and Fellowes was thrilled to see the four-year-old back to his best.

He said: “He’s been a star of a horse and he’s won five or six times over the last couple of years, but has never really won a big one. He’s always won nice handicaps but never one of the big ones.

“He deserved to win a big one and I’m over the moon for the horse and I’m over the moon for the owners because there is no better place to win a big handicap than Ascot and he did it really well.

“He had a really, really hard race at Doncaster when he won about three starts ago. It was on really soft ground and he had a hard race and when he came back from that his enthusiasm for racing just wasn’t the same. He was coming out the stalls very slowly and half thinking about things.

“We did a few things at home to just try and spark him up again and rekindle some enthusiasm. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t but when it does it is particularly satisfying and today he raced like a horse in love with racing. He jumped out the gates good and travelled as well as anything and he really fought against a really tough horse in Popmaster.”

Atrium holds an entry for the Balmoral Handicap on Qipco British Champions Day but a return to Ascot is not guaranteed, with Fellowes cautious of asking his charge to go into battle again with a big date in the sales ring looming.

“I do very much have in the back of mind how hard the Doncaster race hit him,” he added.

“He’s in the horses in training sale and I think if the owners were keeping him next year I would be more interested in running again. But he’s due to be sold and potentially it would be a silly move to go and run him again quickly two weeks later after he’s had a hard race and if he was to run poorly it may give potential buyers a question mark over him.

“We’ll see. I would love to run him if we were keeping him, but he’s going to go to the sales and there is a decision to be made.”

Jake Wardle is determined to erase the memory of a “heartbreaking” Challenge Cup semi-final setback from his otherwise stellar first season with Wigan when the Warriors host Hull KR in the Betfred Super League play-off semi-finals.

The 24-year-old centre was one of the most crucial components of his side’s surge to the League Leaders’ Shield after signing on a three-year deal from Warrington last year, and his form was recognised by inclusion in this season’s Super League ‘Dream Team’.

But beside the plaudits Wardle admits to still feeling hurt by his side’s agonising golden point Challenge Cup semi-final loss to Rovers at Headingley in July – and says it has provided extra motivation as the two sides prepare to clash again on the big stage on Saturday.

“It was one of the lowest points of my career – to be so close to a Challenge Cup final and to miss out on going to Wembley on golden point was heartbreaking,” Wardle told the PA news agency.

“We’ve spoken about it a lot as a group since then, and how it is not a feeling we want to experience again. It has something that has provided a lot of motivation for us throughout the season, and obviously it gives us a bit more going into this week.”

Rovers’ revival since their own subsequent golden point loss in the final against Leigh suggests another close game in what will be a fifth meeting between the teams this season, with two wins apiece so far, including Wigan claiming their own golden point success at Craven Park in May.

Transformed under Warriors head coach Matt Peet, Wardle will once again be key to Wigan’s chances, and he credits his long-standing relationship with Peet for facilitating his swift switch from a relatively low-key signing into one of this season’s most consistent performers.

“I’ve had a really good relationship with Matty for the last 10 years, and I think he understands me as a person and how to get the best out of me,” added Wardle.

“He’s big on the culture at Wigan and I think that culture that has been built over the years is what makes it so easy for people like myself to come in and feel a part of the team from day one.

“It’s no secret that my last year or two at Huddersfield were very inconsistent, but I’ve got a lot more belief in myself now, I know the coaches also have belief in me, and there’s a lot more to come.

“The reason you start playing the game as a kid is that you dream of one day playing in Grand Final but we have just got the semi-final to focus on first. Having been on the receiving end of a couple of losses we know Rovers will be coming with a lot of confidence and we need to be on top of our game.”

Hull ended a 74-year wait for a Wembley victory as they came from behind to beat favourites Warrington 12-10 in a classic Challenge Cup final on this day in 2016.

It was Hull’s fourth Challenge Cup triumph, but their first at the national stadium as the Wolves suffered their first defeat in four trips to Wembley under coach Tony Smith.

The agony looked set to continue for the Black and Whites when they trailed 10-0 after an hour, but tries in the last 13 minutes from centre Mahe Fonua and full-back Jamie Shaul brought them level and half-back Marc Sneyd kicked the winning goal to settle a 114th cup final that lived up to all the pre-match hype.

Sneyd was named the Lance Todd Trophy winner as man-of-the match, two years after being substituted in Castleford’s defeat by Leeds, and his joy was in sharp contrast to Warrington’s goalkicker Kurt Gidley, whose simple penalty miss early in the second-half proved costly.

Gidley, who had done much to earn his side their 10-point cushion, kicked just one goal from three attempts and missed the last 22 minutes of the match with a head injury as the Wolves lost their way towards the end.

In a contest of epic twists and turns, Hull were indebted to hooker Danny Houghton’s last-ditch tackle – his 52nd of the match – that denied Warrington second rower Ben Currie what looked like the match-winning try two minutes from the end.

Hull coach Lee Radford said: “This is history-making. So many teams prior to us, so many unbelievable players, have not achieved what we did today. I feel privileged and proud putting this group of players together.

“You can’t manufacture chemistry and friendship. We have been mocked, but that togetherness won us the cup final.

“Throughout this competition we have been clinical and dominant, and nobody can begrudge us taking that cup back to Hull. My greatest achievement is putting that together.

“A mention to Danny Houghton, who came up with that tackle. That is the most important tackle in any game I have been involved in.”

Adrian Lam is convinced the sky is the limit for Leigh’s leopardskin-clad heroes after he watched his son Lachlan kick the golden-point decider to sink Hull KR and end their 52-year-old wait for a Challenge Cup win at Wembley.

Leigh’s 17-16 win sustained an astonishing success story for a club whose announcement last October of a surprise rebrand was met with scorn in some quarters and the expectation of a top-flight return spotted with struggle.

With the world’s oldest rugby trophy in the cabinet and a top-four place in Super League seemingly secure, the Leopards head coach has warned the game had better start getting used to its garish newcomers.

“I had a conversation with (owner) Derek (Beaumont) about it (the rebrand) and how people were going to take it, and it’s snowballed to a point where I was having a coffee this morning and saw men wearing leopardskin tops and shirts,” recalled Lam.

“It helps because we’re winning but it’s just gone viral across the whole town and maybe across the UK. It’s caught on and I think it can go to so many different levels – where does it end?”

Lachlan Lam held his nerve to settle an enthralling if error-strewn affair in the fourth minute of the extra period, after both team-mate Gareth O’Brien and Rovers’ Brad Schneider missed opportunities to seal the victory.

Steeled by the influence of Lam and the constant prompting of Edwin Ipape, Leigh were the better team for long periods and would have been aggrieved to finish the first period only two points to the good as Rovers somehow clung on.

Jez Litten’s converted try cancelled out Ben Reynolds’ early penalty before Lam burst clear to put Leigh in control. Elliot Minchella’s yellow card for going high on Reynolds on the half-hour made Rovers’ task harder but they not only survived, but reduced the deficit through a Schneider penalty.

Schneider levelled at the start of the second half and valiant Rovers defence held Leigh at bay until Mikey Lewis coughed up an error too far on 65 minutes, Leigh capitalising when Tom Briscoe – the scourge of Rovers in their last final appearance in 2015 when he scored five tries in a 50-0 win for Leeds – touched down.

Matt Parcell gave his side hope on the hooter after the video referee took more than five minutes to deem Kane Linnett had not knocked on a crash ball before the Rovers hooker squeezed over, but Schneider’s conversion to drag the game into the extra period for the first time in the tournament’s history proved in vain.

No sooner had Lam’s kick soared between the posts, confirmation of the Leopards’ victory was greeted by a leopard-suited Beaumont leading a victory charge and Lam being engulfed by his team-mates, many of whom had faced uncertain futures before committing to the owner’s unlikely revolution.

“Some of the players we’ve recruited over the last 18 months were down and out in some areas and I’m just so grateful for what they’ve done,” added Adrian Lam.

“Edwin Ipape wasn’t in a team anywhere, no-one knew who Kai O’Donnell was, Josh Charnley couldn’t get in the Warrington team. The way that group has got together has been incredible. This is a magic moment for the club but we feel there is so much more to come.”

While few if any would dare mock Leigh’s pretensions to repeat the feat and go all the way to the season-ending Grand Final, Rovers face the difficult task of recovering and embarking on a run that will secure their own place in the end-of-season play-offs.

Such an eventuality would provide hope of a fitting send-off for captain Shaun Kenny-Dowall, whose hopes of marking his final season as a player by becoming the first KR player to lift the Challenge Cup since 1980 were cruelly dashed.

The veteran New Zealander had been the prime instigator in keeping his side’s feet on the ground after their golden point semi-final win over Wigan, and he will spend this week imparting a message of a different kind ahead of their Super League resumption at St Helens next weekend.

“I’m obviously very disappointed and I really feel for our fans who showed up in numbers like they always do,” said Kenny-Dowall. “But we will dust ourselves off and get back to what we always do, and that is the messaging for this week.

“We will take the learnings as a group and our full focus is on what is ahead. We are sitting nicely and we know if we rally round and put our full energy into the next few games, we will give ourselves the best chance to be playing in another game like that at the end of the year.”

Pip Birchall is no stranger to Wembley having cheered on her beloved St Helens at the showpiece venue in each of their last four Challenge Cup final appearances.

But during those big occasions Birchall and her Saints-supporting family never dared dreamed that one day she might be the one chasing silverware on the game’s biggest stage.

The 23-year-old forward, who was born and raised in the town, will finally assume the limelight with her team-mates on Saturday when Saints face Leeds Rhinos in the women’s Challenge Cup final.

“Every time I sat in those stands I was itching to get onto that pitch but I assumed it would never happen because the women didn’t get to play there,” Birchall told the PA news agency.

“I just had the mindset that it would never happen. But I gradually started to wonder if it might be possible, which just shows how far the women’s game has come.

“My parents were at a wedding in Ireland when we won the semi-final, and when I phoned them we were all in tears. They have been with me to so many places in my career and we couldn’t believe we are going to Wembley.”

Birchall started playing for Saints at junior levels but the women’s game was still in its infancy and her and her team-mates had to routinely overcome obstacles just to get onto the playing surface.

“I remember one game at Chorley where they’d left the gates locked and we had to knock on a door and ask a man in his pyjamas if it was all right to climb over his back fence to get to the pitch,” added Birchall.

“We would often have to play four versus four or join the other team just to make up the numbers. If you hurt your leg you just jumped in the car and tried to make it to A&E as quickly as possible.

“It’s been a rollercoaster but being able to be a part of the first-ever women’s final at Wembley is another sign of how far the game has come.”

Saints booked their place in the final when Faye Gaskin kicked the winning drop-goal in their semi-final against York – but hours later the men’s team failed to keep their side of the bargain as they slid to defeat against Leigh.

Birchall could hardly hide her disappointment at that shock result but the hurt is diluted by the knowledge that for once the town will be placing its women’s team at the front and centre.

“It would have been the pinnacle to have both teams there,” admitted Birchall. “But with the men not managing, it’s now about us. We’re who the town is talking about, there’s a buzz about the place and that’s exactly what we need.”

The mastermind behind the greatest day in Leigh’s history is convinced the club are on the brink of eclipsing his Wembley miracle.

Alex Murphy was the inspirational and charismatic player-coach who led the north-west minnows to an unexpected Challenge Cup triumph in 1971.

In one of the competition’s greatest upsets, Murphy’s well-drilled side defied the odds to overpower a much-fancied Leeds 24-7 in the final at the national stadium.

Now, 52 years on, the recently-rebranded Leopards have a chance to emulate those achievements having plotted a similarly unlikely route to the showpiece match in their first season since returning to the top flight.

After years of struggle, mostly in the lower divisions with financial crises a recurring theme, the club are enjoying an extraordinary campaign. They sit third in Super League and on Saturday they take on Hull KR for one of the sport’s most prestigious prizes.

“They’ve had a good start to the season and it’s a great achievement to get there,” Murphy, now 84, told the PA news agency.

“There have been a lot of very tough times but Derek Beaumont, the chairman, deserves a big pat on the back. He has steered them through thick and thin.

“I think it will be a magnificent occasion. When I took Leigh to Wembley, there was nobody left in the town. It was a tremendous turnout but I think this one will be even better.

“I think it will be a hard game – Hull KR are a physical side – but the way Leigh are playing at the moment, they look as though they have got the ability to win. With the supporters’ help, they’ll do it.”

Murphy was one of greatest players the British game has ever produced, a dynamic scrum-half blessed with pace, vision and an astute tactical acumen that also made him a natural leader.

He burst onto the scene as a precocious teenager with hometown St Helens in the 1950s but, cocksure and not afraid to speak his mind, controversy was never far away.

He fell into dispute with Saints in 1966 and was placed on the transfer list. Leigh could not afford his fee but audaciously offered him their head coach’s job, which Saints were powerless to prevent.

Saints eventually had to cut their losses and release his playing registration too and Murphy went on to lead Leigh with verve and distinction on and off he field. That culminated with his Lance Todd Trophy-winning heroics in front of 85,514 at Wembley.

“The ’71 final was the greatest achievement of my career,” said Murphy, who had previously won the cup with Saints and later did so again with Warrington.

“They were big favourites but I never had any doubt whatsoever. One thing I had in life was confidence and all you’ve got to have with confidence is ability, and we had a lot of it. They didn’t realise that.”

The game is also remembered for featuring the first sending-off in a Challenge Cup final and, typically, Murphy was at the heart of events as Leeds captain Syd Hynes was dismissed.

What occurred has been the subject of dispute ever since, with the alleged off-the-ball headbutt from Hynes that left Murphy motionless on the turf frustratingly just out of the TV camera shot.

Folklore has it that Murphy winked as he was carried off on a stretcher before returning to the action seemingly unhurt a few minutes later. He has always denied he milked the situation but, with Hynes never backing down in his insistence he did little untoward, the argument continues to rumble.

“All I could see was him standing over me, telling me what he was going to do to me if I went back (on the field),” Murphy said.

“A lot of people said I winked at him when I was going off but the only thing I did was close my eyes.

“I think that made me more determined than ever. I thought, ‘We’ll see. You’ll be sorry you’ve done that’. And he was. He finished up getting a loser’s medal, so it kind of put it right.”

Hull KR coach Willie Peters will spare his star men the prospect of facing a potentially-vengeful Wigan on Friday night with their Wembley Challenge Cup final date fast approaching.

Peters plans to field a virtually-unrecognisable line-up for their Betfred Super League clash at the DW Stadium, including three players he has brought in this week on short-term loan deals plus three academy graduates who will make their first-team debuts.

Rovers edged Matt Peet’s men in a semi-final thriller at Headingley less than two weeks ago and despite their desire to cement a play-off spot, Peters is making no apologies for refusing to take risks with his already injury-hit squad.

“Obviously it’s a very important game this week but it’s a very important game next week too,” said Peters. “We will be going there with a team that is going to compete but we’ve got to be smart as well.

“If we have a team that goes out and competes from one minute to 80, I’ll be a proud coach. I think this is a game that we can hopefully go and make our fans proud of us, that a young team has gone over to Wigan and given their all.”

Rovers face Leigh at Wembley on August 12 where they will hunt their first Challenge Cup victory since their only previous triumph over city rivals Hull FC in 1980.

Peters confirmed the respective signings of Catalans half-back Cesar Rouge, Wakefield prop Isaac Shaw and Warrington forward Luke Thomas, all on two-week loan deals.

In addition, academy players Leo Tennison, Louix Gorman and Lennie Ellis will make the first team for the first time.

Peters is still hopeful that Tom Opacic, Eliot Minchella and Ethan Ryan will all recover from their current injuries in time for the Challenge Cup final a week on Saturday, but Jordan Abdull will definitely miss the Wembley date.

Wigan head coach Matt Peet hopes to give out-going joint-owner and chairman Ian Lenagan a fitting send-off with more Challenge Cup glory at Wembley.

Lenagan, 77, announced last Saturday that he will stand down at the end of the season in November, ending his 16-year association with the club.

Wigan, who lifted the Cup at Wembley last season for a record-extending 20th time after victory over Huddersfield, take on Hull KR at Headingley on Sunday for a place in this year’s final.

Peet said: “I think everyone understands how much he has committed to the club, financially obviously, but in terms of emotion and dedication of his life and his family’s life.

“It would be fitting if we could get him to at least one more final. We’ll take this opportunity this week to try and do it, but we’re up against another proud club with plenty of motivation of their own.”

Since Lenagan bought the Warriors from Dave Whelan in 2007, they have been Grand Final winners four times and have won three League Leaders’ Shields, three Challenge Cups and a World Club Challenge.

Peet, promoted from assistant to head coach after Adrian Lam’s departure in October 2021, said: “I think it’s where (Lenagan) picked the club up and on and off the field, where the club was at and where he’ll leave them.

“Everything that’s gone on between will be the biggest indication and history will remember Ian Lenagan as one of the greatest leaders in the history of the club, and rightly so.

“The influence he’s had on the education in the town, community, the engagement and obviously on the field.

“He’s also made his mark on the game as a whole. Internally, we always make decisions which are best for Wigan, but he always has the bigger picture in mind of what’s best for the game.”

Peet has warned his side must produce top form if they are to beat Hull KR on Sunday to set up a Wembley showdown against either St Helens or Leigh on August 12.

Wigan lost 27-18 to Hull KR at Craven Park on the opening day of the Super League season in February and edged a 26-22 golden-point win in the return in May.

“They’ve outplayed us twice so it’s obvious anything less than our best performance of the season and we’ll not be in the final,” added Peet, who has no new injuries following Friday’s 26-12 win against Warrington.

Hull KR head coach Willie Peters, appointed as Tony Smith’s successor for the start of the season, is waiting for fitness reports on doubtful trio Ryan Hall, Jimmy Keinhorst and Elliot Minchella.

Rovers, who lost in the semi-finals to Huddersfield last season, have seen a strong Super League challenge hit by a string of injuries.

Australian Peters, 44, who played on the losing side for Wigan in the  2000 Super League Grand Final defeat to St Helens, said: “If we can beat a club like Wigan to go and play at Wembley, it would be huge.

“Everything we’ve been through, the adversity in terms of injuries, it would be massive.

“We need to enjoy ourselves, celebrate the little wins along the way, like getting to the semis, but every team wants to get to Wembley.

“If we were to do the job, it would give the club huge belief, that’s for sure.”

Fifty-one years of Wembley hurt was extinguished for Salford in the most bittersweet way in 2020 when supporters were locked out of their side’s first Challenge Cup final appearance since 1969 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is sure to be an additional incentive for Paul Rowley’s buoyant side as they head into Saturday lunchtime’s quarter-final against Hull KR at Craven Park with arguably their best opportunity yet to re-converge on the sport’s most enduring showpiece.

For the second consecutive season, Rowley’s Red Devils have shattered expectations and head into their last-eight clash against their injury-plagued opponents on the back of seven wins out of eight and sitting just two points off the Super League summit.

“It’s a rare occurrence for Salford to get to any cup final, so to do it when there are crowd restrictions, it would have been easy to fall into that trap of thinking it’s always us, and we’re unlucky as a club maybe,” said Rowley.

“It would be fantastic for the fans to experience what they were robbed of last time. But we really try and just focus on our jobs. It’s important we just stick to the task and don’t get derailed or carried away, and you just hope we take the opportunities when they come to us.”

Salford’s unfortunate recent history in the Challenge Cup can also be traced back to 1998, their best chance to repeat their previous final appearance, when they were edged out in the dying seconds of their semi-final by underdogs and eventual winners Sheffield Eagles.

Painful reminders of the importance of not getting carried away are illustrated on the balance sheet, which show Salford operating one of the tightest budgets in Super League.

They recently launched a community share offer scheme in a bid to become the top-flight’s first wholly fan-owned club.

In that context on-field results have been remarkable, as Rowley’s men have built on last year’s run to the play-off semi-finals with an expressive style of rugby that has won plaudits and points in equal measure, and which included a 26-16 win over Rovers two weeks ago at Magic Weekend.

For Rowley, a Wembley appearance would be a timely reward for the successes his current squad are fashioning against the odds on an almost weekly basis, as well as a welcome profile boost in an increasingly tough financial climate.

“There are no silver spoons at this club,” added Rowley. “We don’t have a carpet rolled out and we go into a rusty old gym and a team room that has nothing posh about it.

“Keeping our feet on the ground is never a difficult proposition. But as one of the old school people, the Challenge Cup was the thing you dreamed about growing up.

“The history and heritage that goes with it is something quite remarkable, and it’s something we want to continue. This is the first of three opportunities to win a trophy and I’d like any sort of success for this group because I think it’s a special one.”