St Helens vs Wigan derbies never need any spice adding to them but Leeds’ defeat on Thursday night has done exactly that. Before then this was just a normal derby with Wigan looking to win to keep up the heat on Leeds in the race for the league leaders’ shield.
That defeat for Leeds though has given St Helens even more incentive to get one over their rivals as a win here will maintain their hopes of leading the table going into the playoffs so this is likely to be an even more competitive derby than normal if that is possible.
St Helens go into the match in fourth place in the table but they will move to within a point of leaders Leeds with a win and they have Warrington at home next week so they’ll fancy their chances of winning the shield.
Wigan are level with Leeds with this match in hand so a win here will put them in a strong position to lead the pile at the end of the season and it would eliminate Saints and Huddersfield from the chasers so they’ll be right out to win this.
St Helens go into this match off the back of two wins having started the Super 8s very slowly. They saw off Leeds and then Castleford in the last fortnight and look to be getting back to their early season form.
Wigan have won seven of their last eight Super League matches so like they often do they are hitting form at just the right time with the playoffs in sight. This is a real test for them though.
The home side will be without arguably their best player this season in Alex Walmsley but on the plus side Mose Masoe and Atelea Vea are back to pep up the forward line and they’ll need all of that beef. Luke Walsh, Jon Wilkin and Travis Burns are in good nick while Adam Swift is scoring plenty of tries.
Wigan have Sean O’Loughlin back in their squad and that is going to be important for them. He is such an influential player for them. Matty Bowen and Larne Patrick also return from injuries which kept them out of last week’s win but Taulima Tautai is out with suspension.
These two sides have met twice this season and have a win each with both sides winning on their own ground. That highlights the advantage of the home crowd in these fixtures so St Helens certainly have an advantage in that area.
Wigan are a really good side but I do have a couple of concerns over them. Firstly they have only won five of their 14 matches away from the DW Stadium this season which isn’t a particularly good record and also their defence looked very poor against a decimated Hull side last week.
St Helens have had a couple of blips over the course of the season but they look to be out of the latest one of those and I think they have the ability to get the job done here.
Back St Helens to beat Wigan for a 4/10 stake at 1.91 with Boylesports
Blog RL YTD: +17.35pts
