There is one remaining televised match in the Super League this weekend and it comes from France and is probably the pick of this round of games on paper as Catalans Dragons host the Leeds Rhinos.
It is fair to say the season has been a struggle for both teams so far and already even in just their third match of the campaign both are under pressure to get a result so that adds to the mystery and intrigue in the contest.
Catalans put up a fairly spirited effort in their first match of the season when they went down by six points to a pretty solid Wigan side in wretched conditions. That made their thrashing by Hull FC all the more surprising two weeks ago but they’ve had a fortnight off to take stock of those matches, put right what went wrong and come out firing here.
Leeds were edged out by Warrington in the opening week of the season but since then they have taken two heavy beatings by Widnes and North Queensland and now they have to try and pick themselves up and come out fighting. That is fighting in effort not the sort of fighting Mitch Garbutt was guilty of last week!
The two weeks off have given the chance for Willie Mason to complete his move and he will make his debut for the Dragons here. He will line up against a solid back line with Todd Carney and Ritchie Myler an excellent half back pairing and the likes of Pat Richards, Jodie Broughton, Tony Gigot and Krisnan Inu all solid in their positions.
Leeds’ season has been a train wreck with injuries with Danny Maguire, Liam Sutcliffe, Tom Briscoe and Carl Ablett all out injured and now they have Garbutt suspended for the hideous punch he threw in the World Club Challenge last week.
Although the Dragons haven’t got off to the best of starts this season you still don’t want to be taking them on with a young side and a largely second string side. They might not be the powerful force they’ve been in seasons gone by but they can still be a danger.
The big concern for me from a Rhinos point of view is the points they have conceded in the last two weeks and the ease with which they have conceded them. If there is one thing the Dragons can do it is score points and I just think they’ll have too many of them for Leeds to keep close to so I’ll take the French outfit to win and cover a converted try.
Back Catalans (-6) to beat Leeds for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Coral
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