The 2016 Super League season gets underway on Thursday night when the defending champions Leeds Rhinos begin their title defence against the Warrington Wolves on a potentially special night at Headingley.
Leeds completed an unprecedented treble last season but that has gone now and they will be focused on defending their titles as well as they possibly can now that the season is about to get going.
A new era will begin at the Rhinos in this match. Two huge figures have departed since last season with the retirements of Kevin Sinfield and Jamie Peacock and it will be interesting to see how closely they have managed to get replacements in for those two. You can’t replace them like for like so Leeds will have lost some sort of edge.
Warrington go into the new campaign with plenty to prove after a really disappointing year in 2015. They have signed accordingly it has to be said but I guess the fruits of their labour will depend on how quickly the many new signings can gel.
Kurt Gidley and Tom Lineham are eye catching signings for the Wolves and if the pre-season has allowed Chris Sandow to get his style across to the side then Warrington can do big things this season.
Leeds have signed Brett Ferres from Huddersfield while Danny Maguire begins his permanent captaincy of the side. He will need a big match and a big season for the Rhinos but he’s a class act and we can’t rule that out.
I think this will be a good one to open the season up with. Leeds are out to prove there is life after Sinfield and Peacock while Warrington are out to prove there is still life in them full stop so something will have to give in the match.
I don’t think Leeds will be as good this season but that is understandable. I doubt they could have repeated their treble win even if Sinfield and Peacock were still around but we shouldn’t forget that in Hardaker, Hall, Moon, Briscoe, Burrow, Maguire and Cuthbertson they still have some massive players and we shouldn’t write them off totally.
I’ve a sneaky feeling that Warrington have nothing to lose and that will suit them in this match but I’m wary and respectful of Leeds’ home record so I’ll start the season off with a nice handicap on the Wolves rather than taking them on the nose.
WIN – Back Warrington (+8) to beat Leeds for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Ladbrokes
I haven’t written any Super League season previews because there isn’t really any prices that standout to me just yet. There has been a lot of personnel turnover in the winter which is tough to gauge who has come out of that well but we get a bit of a break in a couple of weeks for the World Club Challenge and I’ll delve deeper into the outright markets then and after a couple of weeks to assess how everyone is playing hopefully we will be able to take advantage of any overreactions then.
