The final match of the opening day of the Super League Magic Weekend sees the race for the play-offs under the microscope when the Leeds Rhinos take on Hull FC in a huge game for both teams at St James’ Park.
Leeds begin the day in fifth place in the table but Hull FC are within striking distance of them and should the black and whites win here they will get themselves right back in the picture with two rounds left of the season.
Where to watch
The match will be the third one of the day to be shown live in full on the Sky Sports Arena channel. All the lead up to this one will begin when the fallout from game two ends. The match kicks off at 7.30pm.
Leeds Rhinos
The Leeds Rhinos are in the enviable position that they are in control of their own destiny over the remainder of the campaign but that doesn’t mean they are formalities to make it through to knockout football. They are one of the form sides in the Super League but even then they are prone to the odd flat performance, one of which we saw in their last match against Wakefield Trinity on Monday when they came up short in a match that winning would have given them a little bit of moving space.
They are now effectively playing knockout rugby even though we are still in the league phase so they are going to need to bring their best stuff with them here. They will need to be much tougher in their defence than they were against Wakefield. Trinity scored a couple of soft tries and that isn’t going to get the job done. They are also going to need to be clinical in attack because they are missing a couple of key playmakers which could be significant.
Hull FC
When the season started Hull FC looked like they had made the necessary improvements that could make them a Grand Final challenging side but the second part of the campaign has been a bit of a mess as injuries and Covid-19 issues have left them struggling a little bit. While they are not in the best of form, they are still very much a factor in this season and if they can find three weeks of their best form then they could still have a postseason date somewhere.
The big problem Hull FC are going to have here is their form. They have lost six of their last seven matches so confidence is likely to be quite low. If there is something they can take out of their recent run it is that they won on the huge occasion in the derby against their rivals Hull KR which shows they can get up for the big matches. They are going to need to do that again here because lost here and you would think their season will be done.
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Team News
Leeds coach Richard Agar has made some changes to his squad for the Magic Weekend. Alex Sutcliffe has been recalled from his loan spell and he comes in but the Rhinos remain without the likes of Luke Gale, Liam Sutcliffe, Konrad Hurrell, Alex Mellor and Mikolaj Oledzki.
Hull FC will also get a couple of key players back for this match with Jamie Shaul and Carlos Tuimavave added to the squad but they are still without the likes of Josh Griffin, Josh Reynolds and Joe Cator.
Betting
This is probably going to be something of a nervy affair given what is at stake here and I wouldn’t be surprised if it is a match which is settled on who makes the fewest mistakes rather than the team that continually opens up their opponents with some sublime rugby. In a match that is likely to be hard fought and extremely competitive I think Hull FC can get themselves going and use the huge size they have in their forward pack to their advantage.
Both these sides are missing key players but I wonder if the return of Shaul could be significant here. It might allow Jake Connor to move into the halves where he can have a huge impact on the game. The Rhinos looked a little flat to me on Monday. Whether that was an energy thing or the pressure of the position they are in we’ll probably only know during the course of this match. Hull FC do tend to raise their game for the big occasion though so in a match which I think will be much closer than the odds suggest, I’ll take Hull FC to come out on top.
Tips
Back Hull FC to beat Leeds Rhinos for a 3/10 stake at 3.00 with Betway
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