The penultimate week of the Super 8s kick off in Hull on Thursday night as the two sides doing battle for the fourth and final spot in the Super League play-offs clash when Hull FC take on the Wakefield Trinity.
Hull’s defeat last week sent Wigan up to third and made the race for the final spot even more intense and with just two matches left neither of these sides can afford to lose which should make for epic viewing.
Hull FC
The Challenge Cup winners will have been disappointed to slip up last week but when they were forced to play almost an hour with 12 men I guess that was inevitable in the end. What they don’t need to happen now is for that defeat to manifest but if they have some tired legs still then they could be in trouble.
I would imagine their side will be freshened up here but I would not be surprised to see them play this like a cup match rather than a typical Super League one. That would mean kicking for goal from penalties and generally running the clock down whenever the chance presents itself. To do that they need to get in front.
Wakefield Trinity
In many ways Wakefield’s defeat last week will hurt more than Hull FC’s one. That is because Trinity were well in control heading into the last 15 minutes but they got nervous and edgy and as soon as St Helens scored one try you could almost see the complete collapse happening. They have a chance to put that right here though.
It might just be that last week was a blessing in disguise given that they have an immediate chance to rectify it and if they do get into a period of domination they will know what to do differently to make sure last week does not happen again. If they can win this match they will head into a clash with Wigan next week with everything on the line.
Team News
Hull FC are going to have Gareth Ellis and Steve Michaels back from suspension. With both leaving the club for different reasons at the end of the season this will be their final appearance at the KCOM. Liam Watts is available having suffered no suspension on top of his red card.
Wakefield Trinity face missing Reece Lyne here although in Mason Caton-Brown they have a speedy replacement should the centre have to miss the match. Dean Hadley is ineligible against his parent side.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
I expect this to be a very competitive game. Obviously there is everything on the match so that in itself is going to make it competitive but then you factor in the fairly locality of the two sides and that will only add to it.
Another thing to factor into the equation is the amount of rain that is going up and down the country on Thursday which may make gripping the ball difficult and lead to fewer risks being taken. I really believe this will be played out more as a cup match and that too will keep the point scoring low so 48.5pts looks a shade on the high side to me.
Tips
WON – Back Under 48.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.90 with 888sport
Back it here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2017
