Richard Agar dedicates Leeds Rhinos’ semi-final victory to Rob Burrow and Harry Newman

The pair were at the front of coach Richard Agar’s thoughts after his men booked a place at Wembley – to face Salford Red Devils on Saturday, October 17 – with an emphatic 26-12 conquering of Wigan Warriors.

Burrow – a try scorer the last time Rhinos won the Cup, in 2015 – is battling motor neurone disease and Newman will miss the final and the rest of this season with a broken leg suffered two weeks ago.

“I am thinking about Rob and Harry,” Agar said in his post-match press conference. “Harry has come over [to the game] on his sticks and while it will really hurt him not being part of the Challenge Cup final, I would like to dedicate this performance to those two blokes, one of whom was here and the other who will have been at home watching.”

Agar has coached at Wembley with Hull and Warrington Wolves and transformed Rhinos from a side struggling against relegation to one sitting in Betfred Super League’s top-four and 80 minutes away from a major trophy.

He insisted: “I am really proud to coach this famous club. The Challenge Cup holds a lot of fondness and memories for me so on a personal level I am over the moon, but I am more pleased for the players.

“They have believed in each other, supported each other, rode out some difficult days and always stuck together. I am proud of the spirit we have developed internally and the good guys that exist within this team.”

Rhinos were in command from the start and led 26-0 before Wigan scored two late consolation tries.

“We have got some young players who are going to experience a really big game,” Agar added. “We have some guys who are over here having left their families during the Covid situation, which is very difficult.

“We have two half-backs who are over 30 and have played for a long time and are wonderful blokes and really deserve to experience a game like this.

“We have a multitude of reasons why motivation wasn’t going to be an issue – it was just a case of executing what we’d practiced really well all week.”