The road to Old Trafford begins on Thursday evening when the Wigan Warriors host the Leeds Rhinos to open up the Super League Play-Offs at the DW Stadium on a night where the season will end for one of the two sides.
This is knockout football for both teams with the Warriors having home advantage courtesy of finishing fourth in the table while the Rhinos know that by coming fifth in the regular season they will be on the road for as long as their season remains active.
Where to watch
The match will be screened live and in full on the Sky Sports Arena channel with the build-up to the play-off opener beginning at 7pm and the match kicking off at 7.45pm.
Wigan Warriors
When you think back to the start of the season when the Wigan Warriors had won their first seven matches, they looked certainties to be in the top two and getting a bye this week. They weren’t always convincing in their victories, with their attack stuttering throughout that run, but they were winning matches. Injuries then came along though and they haven’t really looked the same since. The Warriors now go into this do or die clash having lost four of their last seven matches.
The flip side of that is that the Warriors have won three of their last four matches including a win over the Catalans Dragons last week. In two of those wins they have scored a dozen or less though and that has been their issue all season. Their attack just hasn’t put up enough points all season. We are used to seeing Wigan peak at this point in a campaign though and they will hope they can do that again in what is the final home match in charge for Adrian Lam.
Leeds Rhinos
The Leeds Rhinos have always been in and around the play-off places this season but they have never had the consistency to really threaten a home match in the elimination round of the postseason. That means they know if they are going to win the Super League title they are going to need to do it the slightly harder way. I don’t think that will worry them too much and when they can get their best side on the park they are a match for anyone, so they shouldn’t be ruled out, but as has been the case all season they do have injuries.
Leeds do go into this match with plenty of form behind them as they have won five of their last seven matches, which includes a regular season win at the DW Stadium a few weeks ago. Slowly but surely they have got a few key players back in recent weeks and it might well be that they are the strongest they have been personnel wise here. There is plenty of experience mixed in with the younger players in this Leeds side so you would expect them to deal with the occasion fine which might be half the battle.
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Team News
The Wigan Warriors welcome Brad Singleton, Morgan Smithies and Liam Marshall back into their squad for this knockout match. They will be without Jai Field and Joe Bullock though with both missing out with injuries.
Leeds Rhinos also have some players back too. Zane Tetevano has served his suspension while King Vuniyayawa, Alex Mellor and Mikolaj Oledzki have all recovered from their injuries. Rob Lui is fit but Luke Gale, Liam Sutcliffe and Jack Walker are among those who are still injured.
Betting
You would imagine both sides are going to deliver their best performance in this match but I just like the way the Leeds Rhinos are trending at the minute. Both sides had good wins last week but this Wigan attack still concerns me and I don’t see it getting any better given the backs they are without still. I do think Leeds are going in the right direction and I think they have more options to unlock a tight defence than their Wigan counterparts here.
This is going to be a fierce battle but the Rhinos have plenty of power and mite in their forward pack to stand up to that and then with the likes of Ritchie Myler about to get into positions to strike and two powerful centres to deliver the goods in an area of the pitch where Wigan have been hit hard with injuries. I understand why Wigan are the favourites with the quality of their defence but I still fancy Leeds to come out on top in this one.
Tips
Back Leeds Rhinos to beat Wigan Warriors for a 3/10 stake at 2.50 with Betfair
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