The first full weekend of the return of the Super League concludes on Sunday with three tasty matches which come one after the other on what should be a cracking showcase for the sport at Headingley Stadium.
We saw two one-sided affairs on Saturday so those who are putting the league in the spotlight will be hoping for a little more competitive fayre over the course of Sunday. All three matches are live on Sky Sports in the UK.
The Format
There has been a change in the format of the season. The ‘loop matches’ and Magic Weekend have bitten the dust so teams will play 20 regular season matches ahead of the playoffs. Scrums are a thing of the past for the remainder of the season. They are being replaced with a tap restart to prevent the spread of the virus. The ‘six to go’ rule that is being used in NRL is also coming into the Super League with more eyes likely to be on the game with other sports yet to get back up and running.
Salford Red Devils vs Hull FC (13.00)
The opening match of the three on Sunday sees the beaten Grand Finalists of last season Salford Red Devils taking on a Hull FC side who last we saw of them were sacking Lee Radford as two teams at the wrong end of the table collide.
The lockdown probably came at a good time for these two sides so having had a chance to address their differences they now have to get to work and repair the damage they did with a poor start to proceedings. There are plenty of unknowns here not least how Hull FC will fare under their new coach and with Salford not really offering much in the way of consistency this one is an easy match to leave alone.
Special Offer
OPEN AN ACCOUNT WITH 888SPORT AND BET £10 TO GET £30 IN FREE BETS PLUS A £10 CASINO BONUS! PERFECT OFFER FOR THE RETURN OF SUPER LEAGUE! CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO JOIN. USE CODE 30F. NEW ACCOUNTS ONLY. 18+ T&Cs apply (See image for significant terms). Gamble Aware.
Wakefield Trinity vs Wigan Warriors (15.15)
The second match of the afternoon sees a Wakefield Trinity side who themselves didn’t have the best time of it prior to lockdown taking on the champions Wigan Warriors who will be looking to go back to the top of the table for a few hours at least with a victory in this match.
It has been hard going for Wakefield so far this season so they will have hoped to use lockdown to their advantage and it might be that the change in rules help them out a little bit with the game clearly sped up since the return of the sport. I don’t think it will hamper Wigan too much though and after a good start to the season they will go into this match full of confidence. Wigan have won four matches they season and they have covered the 12pt handicap they have been asked to cover here on each occasion. I fancy them to cover it here too but I’m acutely aware that Wakefield don’t have a bad record against Wigan so I’m tentatively going to leave this one.
Leeds Rhinos vs St Helens (18.30)
The final match of the weekend is the pick of the matches on paper as the ‘home side’ this week, Leeds Rhinos, take on St Helens in one of the two heavyweight battles of the season so far in the only match between two sides who returned to action last week.
Both sides won on their return last week. Leeds came from the clouds to see off Huddersfield in an absolute epic while St Helens demolished a very poor Catalans side. You might think that form was nicely franked on Saturday but I think it was more that Catalans had played a match rather than anything that is going to boost the magnitude of Saints’ win last week. Leeds will be buoyed after winning a match when they clearly didn’t play well and that bodes well for them here. It should be remembered that St Helens lost three on the bounce before lockdown and I’m not completely convinced one win has changed all that. This is an exciting Rhinos side and I believe they can stay within eight points if not win the game.
Tips
Back Leeds Rhinos (+8) to beat St Helens for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Bet365
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2020
