The pick of the matches in the first round of the Super 8s in Super League comes along on Friday night when the Challenge Cup finalists Leeds take on a Warrington side likely to be dejected by their failure to book a date with the Rhinos at Wembley.
Leeds head into the Friday showdown at Headingley on top of the Super League and they can put the pressure on St Helens with a win here which would send them three points clear ahead of Saints’ trip to France on Saturday. Warrington can move to within two points of the top four if they win so there is everything to play for, as there is going to be throughout the Super 8s.
Leeds have been the best side in Super League so far this season and will aim to come blasting out of the traps and put Warrington under immediate pressure. They had a few extra hours to recover from their Challenge Cup exploits which is no bad thing and being at home they look to have plenty in their favour here.
Warrington have won three of their last four in Super League with only a last gasp defeat to St Helens the loss in that run but their Challenge Cup semi-final performance last week will have been a huge disappointment to them and that will have taken time to get over. I’m sure if they had played well and been beaten they could have shrugged it off easier but they were wretched.
Leeds have been forced into one change to their squad for this match after Jamie Jones-Buchanan picked up a season ending knee injury in the Cup semi-final last week. He has been replaced by Josh Walters. Stevie Ward remains on the sidelines.
Warrington’s cup defeat came at a big price as they have lost Ryan Atkins, Ben Harrison and Gene Ormsby to injury and all three miss this match. Ben Westwood remains out through suspension too so there are some big players out for the visitors. One man who might boost them is half-back Chris Sandow who is expected to make his debut having joined from Parramatta recently.
Warrington can take some comfort from the fact they have already done the double over Leeds this season but Leeds are in exceptional form right now and look to be getting better and better week on week. Try as I might I just can’t ignore how poor Warrington were last week and when you factor in the fallout from that cup defeat with the injuries and things I just think Leeds are going to have too much here and I expect them to win by double figures at least.
Back Leeds (-7.5) to beat Warrington for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Betfred
Blog rugby league YTD: -3.56pts
