The Super League play-offs continue on Friday evening when the third placed Warrington Wolves take on the last team into the postseason in the form of Hull KR in front of a packed Halliwell Jones Stadium crowd.
The equation here is simple. If Warrington win they go to St Helens in the semi-final next week while a Hull KR victory will send them to the Catalans Dragons in a week from now. The loser will be watching on with their season done.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Arena channel with the build-up to the contest beginning at 7pm and the kick off at the Halliwell Jones Stadium coming at 7.45pm.
Warrington Wolves
We’ve spoken about the Warrington Wolves all season and now is the time for them to show exactly what they are made of. There are no excuses for the Wolves here. They have an opponent who look there for the taking and they have the chance to lay a marker down for what they hope will be two matches after this one. Warrington have had a history of flattering to deceive in the big matches but should they lose here it might be the lowest of all defeats.
Wire come into this match off the back of six wins in their last eight outings and they were particularly impressive in ending the season of the Catalans Dragons last week. That sort of performance repeated here should be more than enough to win but I’d like to see Warrington place a strong emphasis on defence here. We know they have the attacking talent to beat anyone so if they can lay a defensive marker down here they become huge dangers for the title.
Hull KR
All the credit in the world has to go to Tony Smith and his band of men for the amazing turnaround from last season to this one. Last term they were bottom of the pile, admittedly with an eye on the future after the demise of the Toronto Wolfpack meant that no relegation was going to take place, and now less than a year later they have made the play-offs. You hope they have what it takes to rise to the occasion but there have been a few signs recently that the season has started to catch up on them.
The Robins have four of their last six matches with the two wins in that time coming against a terribly abject Leigh Centurions at the Magic Weekend and a victory against the Castleford Tigers who ran out of puff when they were comfortably in front in that match. Hull KR would have had it all to prove at this level anyway but they come into this match with a number of injuries which is just going to make the task even harder for them.
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Team News
The Warrington Wolves will be forced into a change from their best 13 with Mike Cooper serving a suspension. Steve Price welcomes Daryl Clark, Toby King and Danny Walker back from injury for this knockout encounter.
Hull KR have a number of injuries heading into this match and the latest one of those is Matt Parcell. His absence is going to be hurtful to the Robins while the likes of Ryan Hall will also miss this match. There is a return for George Lawler though.
Betting
I find it hard to see anything but a comfortable Warrington Wolves win here. They have already taken Hull KR to the cleaners on a couple of occasions this season when the Robins were much stronger both in form and personnel and then when you add the play-off experience into the mix there really shouldn’t be any other result than an emphatic Warrington win, one which will build their confidence ahead of a tasty semi-final at St Helens next week.
The doubt comes over the Wolves’ tendency to flatter to deceive when they have everything in their favour but I think that is slowly going to diminish with George Williams and Gareth Widdop pulling the strings in the halves. They are experienced at the highest level and are capable of inspiring the team. Hull KR like to play with two hookers and play a quick game but the Parcell injury sticks a spanner in those works. I think they have an injury or two too many so I’ll take the home side to win emphatically here.
Tips
Back Warrington Wolves (-16) to beat Hull KR for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Bet365
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