Old Trafford awaits for someone and on Saturday evening we will find out who it is who will make their way to the Theatre of Dreams for the Super League Grand Final when the Wigan Warriors host the Leigh Leopards in the second semi-final.
Wigan have already won the World Club Challenge, the Challenge Cup and the League Leaders’ Shield this season and will want to move a win away from successive Super League crowns. Leigh Leopards are 80 minutes from a first Grand Final so this local derby is perfectly poised.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the BBC Two and Sky Sports+ channels with the build-up getting underway at 5pm ahead of the kick off at 5.30pm.
Wigan Warriors
There is no doubt that the Wigan Warriors are the standard bearers in English rugby league at the minute but they will know that just because they finished top of the league does not mean that they have a divine right to go back to Old Trafford. They have plenty going for them in this match but they still need to avoid a banana skin and get the job done but having had last week off and hosting the game give them the best possible chance of reaching the Theatre of Dreams once again.
Wigan have won their last six matches in the Super League and have only lost one of their last 26 home games in all competitions, although one of those was on a neutral venue at the Magic Weekend. Wigan have the second best attack in the competition and the third best defence and most of their key players are available for this game. When you add in the insane play-off experience that the home side have then Wigan have all the tools needed to be worthy favourites here.
Leigh Leopards
When they were only able to finish fifth in the regular season, the Leigh Leopards knew that they had to take the hard route to Old Trafford as they were going to be on their travels throughout the postseason. They have already navigated the first part of that journey with a really tough win at Salford last week and now need to win away from home again for a first appearance at Old Trafford and a shot at a maiden Super League title.
Leigh are going to have to bring their best performance against Wigan to the party here though. They have faced their rivals three times in the Super League this season and the closest they have got to them was 18 points which doesn’t bode well. They have to defend well here. Wigan have scored 40, 24 and 28 points in those three matches and you’re just not going to score 20 points against this Wigan defence at this time of the year. If Leigh do defend well they have enough on offense to give them a chance.
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Team News
Matty Peet has had the luxury of naming an unchanged 21-man squad from the emphatic win over the Salford Red Devils to secure the Leaders’ Shield last time out. Brad O’Neill is the only significant absentee.
If Leigh were not having to do it hard enough in this match, they will have to win without their leading try scorer as Josh Charnley picked up a neck injury last week which will rule him out of this semi-final against his former club. That could see Umyla Hanley move to the wing.
Betting
I’m always a little reluctant to get involved in big handicaps in semi-finals because they are all about winning and getting to the Grand Final but this does look like it has the potential to be something of a mismatch. You can often put some sort of case on the underdog keeping things close in a match of this kind but I don’t really see where Leigh Leopards are going to hurt the Wigan Warriors in this clash. I didn’t with Josh Charnley in the Leigh ranks and it is even less without him.
I’m actually a little surprised that Wigan are only being asked to cover a dozen points here. I can only think that the line is that low because this is a semi-final but if Wigan do get in front by a couple of scores I expect them to slip through the gears and move away. I’m not going to take much notice of them keeping Salford to nil points last time out but the match before that they kept a Leeds side who needed to win scoreless. Wigan have an attack which can go through the gears and a defence that is tough as teak. Leigh will give this their all but this season they have lost by 28, 18 and 22 while last season it was 28, 26 and four with the latter in the last week of the season when Wigan just needed to win to win the leaders’ shield. This is a bad matchup for the Leopards and I don’t see anything changing here.
Tips
Back Wigan Warriors (-12) to beat Leigh Leopards for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
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