WARRINGTON Wolves will feature in their 35th Challenge Cup semi-final this weekend.

And this year's appearance will be their eighth in 10 years, the best sequence in the club's history.

Four of the past seven, which all came under former head coach Tony Smith, ended in joy and a much coveted trip to Wembley.

Three of the last four, though, finished in tears.

Of the players likely to make the Wire line-up against Leeds Rhinos at the University of Bolton Stadium, only seven were in the side that beat Wakefield Trinity on the last occasion Wire secured a passage to the final in 2016.

Stefan Ratchford, Toby King, George King, Chris Hill, Daryl Clark, Jack Hughes and Ben Westwood were the ones on duty at Leigh Sports Village two years ago.

Mike Cooper experienced semi-final success with The Wire prior to his NRL adventure, while Josh Charnley (Wigan), Tom Lineham (Hull) and Kevin Brown (Huddersfield and Wigan) celebrated the feat at clubs prior to moves to The Halliwell Jones Stadium.

That leaves Bryson Goodwin, Tyrone Roberts, Harvey Livett, Joe Philbin, Dec Patton, Mitch Brown and Ben Pomeroy preparing for their first taste of a Challenge Cup semi-final experience.

Ben Murdoch-Masila reached the semi finals with Salford Red Devils last year but finished on the wrong end of the scoreline.

This will be the seventh time The Wire and Leeds have met in the last four.

Rhinos won the last meeting at St Helens in 2014, along with the 1935-36 and 1909-10 battles, while Warrington took the honours in 1974-75, 1953-54 and 1949-50 – the latter two leading to victories in the final.