A week ago, Hornets v Leigh in the Challenge Cup was the decider between two inseparable, unbeaten sides. Ironic then, that on the weekend that Leigh had their bye that Hornets should go to Dewsbury and blow up spectacularly on the back of a lacklustre performance.

There were some questionable individual performances at Ram Stadium, but the primary cause of defeat was the fact that Martin Hall's side is still struggling to gel with the new players in key positions. Hornets played very little football last week and a similar performance this week will be more severely punished.

In the Last round - like his Hornets counterpart - Paul Terzis opted to play a number of fringe players, but we can expect a full strength Leigh this weekend.

Terzis could also do worse than suggest that his props keep their hands to themselves. Ex-Biffo David Bradbury returns following his ban for punching Dave Stephenson's lights out whilst Paul Norman is out of the game after being handed a two-match ban for punching in the Centurions' 36-12 third-round win over amateurs Halton Simms Cross at Widnes. Norman was cited for the offence and found guilty by the Rugby League disciplinary committee. Seems the incident took place in the last minute and involved the Simms Cross scrum half. Draw your own conclusions.

Hally will be looking for a major improvement on last week and we could see returns for Wes Rogers and Dave Watson. And Martin won't stand second best for long - any player not seen to be pulling their weight will be looking at a short break in the Alliance Spring Cup.

Both coaches will fancy their team's chances on Sunday and with a prospective shot at a SuperLeague side in the next round the stakes are high. This will be a major blood and thunder affair with Leigh fans expected in good numbers to cheer their side on. The atmosphere should be fantastic - and this time one side will walk away winners.

When I was small and used to go with my dad to the Athletic Grounds, cup games felt different - somehow more special; an exotic garnish on the meat and two veg of the league programme. In cup football, the team that wants it most on the day usually gets it. This will be the game of the season so far - and a far better prospect than the showboating poseurs of Leeds v Bradford. If the NFP really is the home of the soul of Rugby League, Sunday's about as good as it can get.

Thomas Kineally - author of Schindler's Ark - knew exactly where the soul of the game lay. He wrote: When people say... a sport is a religion they are uttering something more than a metaphor. A sport could be to people... not merely a sect but a cosmology, a perfected model of an imperfect world.
Rugby League was a game whose laws had been codified by workers in the forlorn north of England; miners and mill-workers of Bradford and Wigan, Hull and Warrington, were invaded by that particular genius which concerns itself with the serious business of human games, and produced what was the supreme code, a cellular structure composed of thirteen players which mimicked life and art and war so exactly that it became them."

Still got something better to do on Sunday?