After the exciting fixture between Wakefield and Hull KR on Thursday night the other ten sides in Super League play on a busy night of action on Friday as the race for the playoffs and survival really begins to hot up.
As always on a Friday night we have a TV match which is St Helens against Warrington and we also have four other matches which aren’t live in front of the cameras. We’ll begin with the TV match as ever.
St Helens vs Warrington
These two sides go into this match off the back of very differing results last week. Saints were beaten by Hull FC while Warrington smashed Leeds to pieces and if the Wolves didn’t take confidence from that they won’t take it from anything.
All season long St Helens’ form has been up and down and there are no signs of that changing which would be a concern for Kieron Cunningham. They need it to change though because the top four are getting away from them and that isn’t good. What else isn’t good is that they miss Luke Walsh for this match and their attack has always struggled when he hasn’t been around.
Warrington were at their rampant best last week and while Leeds are pretty awful right now Warrington would have beaten anyone in the form they were in on that night and they now need to keep replicating that if they are to win silverware this season. Chris Sandow’s return was a catalyst for that and he is available here but Ben Westwood and Ashton Sims are missing. Westwood is injured while Sims is suspended.
A lot will be made of St Helens’ dominance over Warrington in recent times and while that could be an issue here I much prefer to look at team news and Luke Walsh’s absence is massive. As such I’m going to take Warrington to win this and cover the 4pt handicap.
Huddersfield vs Castleford
This Yorkshire derby is possibly as big as it gets. Huddersfield are fighting hard to get back among the top eight while Castleford are trying to reel in the top four and both massively need the two points here to help them in their quests.
Huddersfield had undergone a recent revival but that was halted by Widnes last week while Castleford lost to Wigan to halt their super run of form so both go into the match off the back of unwanted results making this game absolutely huge.
Huddersfield have a decent record against Castleford but I’m concerned with the way they’ve defended this year. If there is one thing Castleford can do it is pile up the points so that is very much in their favour. Castleford don’t really do ultra-tight defence though so you’ve got to think this one will ignite into life pretty quickly and when it does the points could keep on coming.
Matches between these two are generally high scoring. Five of the last six meetings have had well over 50pts in them so the generic 48.5pt line for this one is probably several short of what is needed. I’m happy to be on the overs there.
Leeds vs Catalans
I think most people expected Leeds Rhinos to have turned their poor start to the season around by now but if anything they have got worse and things were so bad last week that alarm bells have to be ringing.
The way they are playing the last thing they needed was a rampant Catalans side coming to town but that is exactly who come along. The Dragons eased past Hull KR last week and are chasing top spot so there is going to be no let up from them.
Leeds have had injury issues all season and now Zak Hardaker is out again and he is potentially a big loss. His potential replacement Ashton Goulding is also out injured so there is going to need to be a real reshuffle in the Leeds back line. One positive is that Joel Moon returns here but Brad Singleton is suspended.
Catalans are without the big unit that is Dave Taylor for this match which isn’t ideal but they still have players who can muscle up and be counted and their backline can expose any opposition so the Dragons are in a good place here.
Leeds’ defence has been ravaged and rampaged in recent weeks and this Catalans side know how to pile the pressure on and love nothing more than overpowering teams both on the field and on the score line. The damage the likes of Carney and Bosc can cause here can’t be overplayed so I’m fully expecting Catalans to cover an eight point handicap and probably win by quite a few more.
Other Matches
In the other matches the table toppers Hull FC host Widnes at the KC Stadium. Somewhere in the back of my mind I’m thinking Widnes’ 16pt start with the bookies is far too many. Hull tend to win in tighter matches than that but Widnes’ form prior to their win last week was woeful so I’d need to see another performance before I get stuck back into them.
Salford host Wigan in the final game of the night and I’m finding Wigan very hard to call these days. If I was to play Salford I’d want to be getting a few more points than they actually are so with that in mind I’ll sit this one out and stick with just the three on a busy night.
Tips
WON – Back Warrington (-4) to beat St Helens for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
Back them here:
WON – Back Huddersfield vs Castleford – Over 48.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Bet365
Back it here:
WON – Back Catalans (-8) to beat Leeds for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Ladbrokes
Back them here:
