Hull KR set up clash of titans in Challenge Cup final against Wigan

As everyone expected, it will be the irresistible force against the immovable object at Wembley in three weeks’ time. Every great era-defining athlete or team needs an adversary. Ali v Frazier. Manchester United v Arsenal in the early Premier League years. Prost v Senna.

Perhaps in the years to come, this will be viewed as rugby league’s equivalent; a modern clash of the titans. You have to go back to 2022 to find a major final that did not include Hull KR or Wigan. They have contested the past two Super League grand finals against one another, winning one apiece.

Both have won a treble in the past two seasons, with Wigan sweeping the board in 2024 before Rovers did the same last year. Both have beaten NRL opposition and been crowned world champions in that time period too. And later this month, for the first time in history, these champion teams will do battle for what is arguably rugby league’s most prestigious prize.

The manner of how both teams booked their place in the Challenge Cup final underlined the superiority they have over the rest of the domestic field. On Saturday, Wigan were at their resplendent best with the ball and defensively faultless in embarrassing local rivals St Helens 32-0. Hull KR, by their own coach’s admission, saw what they did and decided to emulate it. For 80 minuteson Sunday afternoon in Doncaster yesterday, the reigning holders of the Challenge Cup were sensational, leading with their defensive efforts to strangle Warrington into submission and lay the platform for their attacking players to take control. They won 32-12.

Rovers are a juggernaut to behold on afternoons like these. They master every aspect of the game with and without the ball. And with players of the ability of Mikey Lewis and Tyrone May, Hull KR’s all-conquering half-back pairing that caused havoc all afternoon, they look near enough unbeatable.

Mikey Lewis breaks a tackle during Hull KR’s win over Warrington. Photograph: David Greaves/Focus Images Ltd/Shutterstock

There was no doubting that victory in the World Club Challenge over Brisbane in February, coupled with the early-season trip to Las Vegas, took its toll on the Robins. But they are now resembling the team who dismantled all in front of them throughout 2025 to , and it would take a brave man to back against them at Wembley.