BEN Westwood admits he did not think his career would have stretched to five Challenge Cup finals but he is looking forward to August 25 at Wembley as much as his first club showdown there in 2009.

“It’s a great occasion,” said the 37-year-old of an appearance in the cup final after experiencing triumphs in 2009, 2010, 2012 and a loss in 2016.

“I got to 28 and nothing had happened, then all of a sudden one came along, so to get five before I end up retiring I didn’t think that would happen.”

Reflecting on the 48-12 win against Leeds, he added: “It’s been a good week and I thought we were excellent and fully deserved to get to Wembley.

“Apart from that 10 minutes after the first half I thought we really dominated and I thought our forwards were excellent.

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“Leeds had a patch, we had a purple patch but once we scored again we could see we were going to pull away and I just think we started to enjoy ourselves and play a bit of rugby, which was great.

“It was a great performance, with Toby King playing great in our backs but I think our forwards did a really good job.”

He added, with a huge grin on his face: “I’m proud of Hilly (Chris Hill) and Coops (Mike Cooper), whom I’ve taken under my wing this year and you can see that in how they’re performing.”

Perhaps the fearless loose forward needs to be taken under the wing of new regular goal-kicker Tyrone Roberts though.

The Australian scrum-half made way for Westwood to take the last conversion attempt, from in front of the sticks, against Leeds at the University of Bolton Stadium.

A successful kick would have taken the Wire to the 50-point mark but he fluffed his effort.

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“That’s just lack of practice,” he said.

“I’ve kicked us to a Wembley victory once before. Maybe this time I’ll have to give it over to Tyrone.

“It just proves the highs and lows in rugby league.

“I stepped up to take the kick and all the crowd was cheering and within a second I was right down (after missing the kick in front of the posts). I’ve got enough kicks under my belt hopefully for them to forgive me.”

Westwood’s 2016 Challenge Cup appearance was cut short by injury, leading to an iconic Warrington Guardian front-page image of the warrior leaving the Wembley pitch patched up and gutted.

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Does he feel there is some unfinished business, then?

“Most definitely. That was a great game to be involved in and it went right down to the wire,” he said of the 12-10 loss to Hull FC.

“Unfortunately, I ruptured my pec in that game and that was the end of my 2016 season.

“I don’t look back on stuff like that, I like to think I’ve done pretty well over my career in terms of injury - as a player who plays down the middle in the forwards as hard as I can. I don’t look back on injuries, it’s part and parcel of the game.

“Touch wood, I’ve been alright all year. I’ve had one slight ankle strain. I think it was a hairline fracture but the hospital and the x-rays say different. I still think they’ve got it wrong because it still hurts now.”

Wolves and Catalans will almost have a warm-up for the final when they cash in the first game of this season’s Super 8s at The Halliwell Jones Stadium on Friday.

“I’m not sure it will be a warm-up for the final, but it’s back to the top eight now,” he said.

“We need to work hard. We’ve got a few points that we need to cement the top-four spot.

“Catalans is first and then we’ve got Castleford. We’ll look forward to them two and get us on a good run ready for the final.”