Two sides who won their opening Super League XXIX match last weekend meet in the one game in the competition on Saturday afternoon when the Huddersfield Giants play host to the former champions St Helens.
Both sides won and won well on the first round of the campaign and whoever comes out on top here will have themselves in a good position to kick on over the next few weeks, while an early bump in the road would appear for the loser.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Action channel. The short build-up begins at 5.25pm with kick off at 5.30pm.
Huddersfield Giants
Huddersfield Giants went to the Leigh Leopards last week as the outsiders to come out on top but that is exactly what they did. That would have been a real boost to Ian Watson and his men because they came slowly out of the blocks last season and never recovered so the fact they have an early win on the board is exactly what they would be looking for. It also just gives them a little more freedom when attacking what is clearly a tricky looking fixture here.
The one area where the Giants were questioned heading into last week was whether they had enough in their pack to get the job done against a physical side after they lost a couple of forwards since the end of last season. They showed that they did against Leigh, albeit the Leigh discipline shot themselves in the foot. We know that Huddersfield have the talent in the backs to trouble sides so if their forwards continue to deliver the goods that will make Huddersfield tough to beat.
St Helens
The former champions St Helens were another team who had a slow start to their season last term but unlike the Huddersfield Giants they were able to recover from it. Their slower start was largely down to competing in the World Club Challenge and having to travel to and from Australia and make up the games they missed and things. Once they settled down they looked a champion side again but they ran into the wrong draw in the semi-final and came up short.
It is hard to know what to make of St Helens this season because their opening match was a bit of a walk in the park against the London Broncos. To be fair to Saints you can only beat what is in front of you, and they did that pretty ruthlessly, but you would imagine this will be a much stronger test and we might find out a lot more about their title credentials in this game. One thing we do know about St Helens is they are strong in all departments.
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Team News
Huddersfield Giants have been forced into a change in their squad for this match with Jake Connor missing out due to the concussion protocols. It is therefore welcome that Tui Lolohea returns from the suspension which saw him miss last week.
Paul Wellens has made a couple of changes to the squad for St Helens for this match. Morgan Knowles could make his first appearance of the season while Moses Mbye could also come in. Konrad Hurrell sits this one out.
Betting
I expect St Helens to win this match but I would like to see them in a tougher test than what they had last week before I get too involved in backing them, especially to cover more than a converted try on the road in these heavy conditions. I must admit my enthusiasm to get involved with the Huddersfield Giants in this one reduced when I saw that Jake Connor wasn’t around to play but they are quite capable of getting into positions where they can kick goals and make things awkward for St Helens.
With that in mind, I’ll head to the try scorer markets for a punt on this one with the player in question being Tommy Makinson. He is 13/10 to score anytime in this match and that looks huge to me when you consider that he notched eight times in the three matches against the Giants last season. Admittedly it would be better if Konrad Hurrell was on his inside attracting players but Saints know how to get their wing wizard involved. Makinson went over against London last week and looks a decent price to go in again here.
Tips
Back T.Makinson to score a try for a 3/10 stake at 2.30 with Bet365
