SOMETHING will have to give when the two current holders of silverware meet in Saturday’s Challenge Cup third round, televised on BBC1 (2.30pm).

Super League Champions Saints lock horns with Challenge Cup holders Leeds Rhinos behind closed doors at the Totally Wicked Stadium, with a place in the last eight at stake.

It is a competition Saints have a real hunger for, having not won it since 2008 with every coach since Daniel Anderson failing to bring rugby league’s famous piece of silverware back to town.

Coach Kristian Woolf buys into that desire for this trophy - but had to rein in the players initially when the draw was first made.

Woolf said: “It is a really exciting game and as soon as it was drawn there was a real excitement among the players.

“That was something we had to hose down a bit and make sure our concentration was on last week’s game.

“We have tried to keep relaxed, but over the course of the week we will try to build it up to make sure we are at our best.”

One of the big duels on the day will be between Saints’ predominant ball carrier Alex Walmsley - singled out by Rhinos boss Richard Agar - and Leeds’ heavyweight Zane Tetevano.

But Woolf sees the battle as being much broader than that.

“It is going to be a great battle in the middle and I am looking forward to seeing how Matty Lees and Sione Mata’utia go against a big, tough forward pack in Leeds as well.

“There will be a number of key battles in there but that one will go a long way,” he said.

Saints have league form going into this game, having won two from two, while Leeds have had two reverses.

Woolf said: “We will focus on ourselves and being at our best first.

“We need to be at our best because we are playing the Challenge Cup holders and know what sort of game it is going to be.

"If we don’t get it right we won’t be in the next round."