The final round of matches before the split in the Super League begins on Thursday night when local rivals Warrington Wolves and Widnes Vikings take each other on at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
Whatever the result of this match both sides know they will be competing in the qualifiers to try and retain their Super League status when the competition resumes in a couple of weeks but they have the chance to lay a marker down here.
Warrington Wolves
The Wolves have won three of their last four matches and look to be hitting form at the right time. Their win over Wigan last week should have given them plenty of confidence and with players coming back from injury they should be able to go into the qualifiers excited about the chance of winning plenty of matches.
The key to the revival of Warrington in recent weeks has definitely been the improvement in their attack and if they continue to develop in that area then their Super League safety should be guaranteed especially with the ability they have to defend which they showed well in the win last week.
Widnes Vikings
If the Wolves are on the upgrade the Vikings are the opposite especially on the road. In fairness to them they had been playing pretty well at home although that came to a grinding halt last week when they got a heavy beating at the hands of the Wakefield Trinity. They could do with a win here to take into the qualifiers.
When Widnes lose they generally get blasted out of sight and that can’t be good for confidence. There is certainly an exposed look to their defence and if their key players don’t perform then their attack can suffer too and that is not a good combination. They need to sort both facets out over the next two weeks.
Team News
Warrington Wolves are able to bring Kevin Brown back for this match although they are yet to win a Super League match when he has featured for them. Kurt Gidley and Ben Pomeroy miss out through injury.
Widnes will go into the match without Aaron Heremaia but they have a couple of players back including Alex Gerrard. Denis Betts has named a number of youngsters in his squad for this match.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Betting
The Warrington Wolves are giving up between 16-18pts depending on where you bet for this match and that is probably fair but I can’t bring myself to back them because this match is a nothing match in reality. There may be two weeks before the two sides are back in action but already they will be preparing for that rather than worrying about this.
There is one bet I will have a go with though. Widnes have shipped 18 tries in their last three matches and with Warrington’s attack improving you would think the Wolves will bag a few here and one man who could well go over the try line is Ryan Atkins. He has done that four times in his last four matches against tougher defences than this one. The centre is in good form and even money on him going over again looks too big.
Tips
Back R.Atkins Anytime Tryscorer for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Coral
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2017
