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The two most recent Super League champions - and their two intense coaches - go toe-to-toe on Saturday for rugby league's most coveted trophy.

v is also Brian McDermott v Michael Maguire - two blood-demanding leaders in their first Challenge Cup finals as coaches.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson attended Wigan training on Wednesday as Maguire finalised his preparations for Wembley.

The Australian is renowned for his attention to detail and the work ethic he has instilled in the . If any of his players were in any doubt as to the magnitude of the occasion, they are not now. I'm told Ferguson gave them a big lift.

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as one of most successful and controversial players in the modern era of rugby league.

Having won every individual and team honour in the club game, the former steps into the shadows of the sport as one of its greats. He will also be remembered as one of its most colourful, controversial and enigmatic characters.

The 34-year-old is hoping fans remember him as a "maverick". It was his brilliance on the pitch, and unpredictability off it, that will cement his place in rugby league folklore. At he is already a legend.

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Challenge Cup semi-final weekend is often one of the most dramatic weekends of the rugby league season. Four sides, all 80 minutes from Wembley, and for some sides who make it this far, it is the last chance to grab something special from the season.

For me it is always a date that brings back a painful memory of personal calamity, on the day of one of the most thrilling matches in the Cup's history.

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coach Trent Robinson believes his side have proved their credentials and will now be tough to beat in the playoffs.

After last week's controversy marked the demise of the only other non-English top-flight club, I flew to Perpignan to assess the health of the RFL's best-performing "expansion" side.

Sure, there are huge differences between Crusaders and the Dragons. Moving Super League to a region in which the sport has thrived since the 1930s was hardly the kind of gamble that has backfired so spectacularly in Wales, and failed in Paris before that. But a huge amount of work has had to go into establishing the Catalan club as a competitive presence after their rock-bottom debut season in 2006.

There have been Cup final highs and bottom-of-the table lows in an up and down five years in the elite league, but the Dragons I saw at the weekend are breathing fire again.

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