The big match of the Super League XXIX weekend comes along on Saturday evening when the Catalans Dragons welcome the Challenge Cup finalists Warrington Wolves to the south of France for what should be a high quality dust up.
These two sides were both among the logjam on 16 points at the top of the table heading into the weekend. Warrington began the weekend in third place and Catalans in fourth so someone will enhance their position here.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Action channel with the build-up to the game in France beginning at 5pm UK time ahead of the 5.30pm kick off.
Catalans Dragons
The Catalans Dragons are going along fairly well this season but in a couple of high profile away trips in the last month or so they came up very short against the Leigh Leopards and the Wigan Warriors so there is still some improvement to come from them. There was a bit of doubt around the Dragons heading into the season after the loss of some high profile individuals but they look to be coping fine without them and have another chance to put a bit of a marker down here.
Generally the backdrop to the Catalans success is their home form and in the Super League they have a perfect home record still. They have played six on home soil and won the lot and that includes a 16-10 win over the Warrington Wolves in their opening home game of the campaign. They have won their last two home matches to a cumulative score of 62-6 so they are going well in attack but they are also hard to break down at the minute too.
Warrington Wolves
The Warrington Wolves look much improved this season under the calm nature of head coach Sam Burgess. They always had the talent within their squad to be one of the better teams in the competition but always seemed to fail to handle the hype or the pressure but Burgess looks like he has installed a freedom within their play which is allowing their ball players licence to play and they are looking much better as a result, and one of the teams to beat this season.
The Wolves head to France in high spirits after reaching the Challenge Cup final last week. Usually playing when everyone else had a rest would be a concern but that semi-final was won pretty early on so it wasn’t the most taxing match. Their attack looked in brutally good form in that semi-final and it is now six wins in their last seven matches in all competitions for the Wolves as a result of that. This is a huge test of their form but they do look ready for it.
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Team News
Steve McNamara has used the break to get three of his Catalans Dragons charges back to fitness for this match with Ben Garcia, Paul Seguier and Jordan Dezaria all expected to be involved. Micky McIlorum hasn’t been passed fit though.
Sam Burgess has made a couple of changes to his Warrington Wolves squad for the trip to France. Jordan Crowther has a slight niggle which rules him out while Connor Wrench is also unavailable for this game too.
Betting
It definitely wasn’t the hardest semi-final of all time for the Warrington Wolves last week but they have picked up a couple of knocks and there was only really a five-day turnaround with the travelling that they have needed to do so you would think that this is a good spot for the Catalans Dragons. In an ideal world they would have Micky McIlorum controlling things at hooker but the returning forwards is certainly a boost to the home side.
We know how impressive Catalans are at home. They are yet to be beaten on home soil in the Super League this season and Warrington have already been to this part of France and been beaten this term. Catalans had their feet up last week so they should be absolutely fresh after a fortnight off and that doesn’t bode well for Warrington either. Had this one been played under normal circumstances I would have given the French side the edge with home advantage but with the extra things on their side I think they can cover two points here.
Tips
Back Catalans Dragons (-2) to beat Warrington Wolves for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Coral
