The second round of matches in the Super League continues on Friday evening when three more fixtures take place as the competition begins to take a little shape with sides looking to get up to speed for the year ahead.
We have one of the three matches live on TV to enjoy on Friday evening and then the other two matches usually carry regular updates throughout the live game with highlights of the key moments later in the piece. We’ll begin the preview with the TV game even though other games kick off earlier.
Leeds Rhinos vs Hull FC (20.00 – Sky Sports Arena)
Two sides who had very different starts to the season meet in front of the TV cameras on Friday evening when the Leeds Rhinos take on Hull FC as Rohan Smith faces his uncle Tony in an interesting coaching clash.
The Rhinos were thumped by the Warrington Wolves in their opening match of the season last week, while Hull FC clung on after building up a big advantage over the Castleford Tigers before falling over the line a little. The positive is that they did win but they will know they will need to defend much better than they did if they are going to be a force both in this match and the season to come. Tony Smith tends to focus on the other side of the game though and with a couple of former Leeds players in the FC ranks I wouldn’t be completely surprised to see Hull win this. I sense Leeds are better than they showed last week though and that last 20 minutes Hull delivered against Castleford is just enough to have me watching this rather than betting on it.
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Huddersfield Giants vs Warrington Wolves (19.45)
The pick of the matches on the evening could be the one at the John Smith’s Stadium where the Huddersfield Giants begin their Super League campaign when they host the Warrington Wolves who were very impressive last week.
The Wolves opened up their campaign with a bit of a demolition job on the Leeds Rhinos and looked really good in doing it. They might feel they have a bit of an advantage having had a competitive hit out unlike Huddersfield whose opening game was kyboshed with St Helens being involved in the World Club Challenge last week. That could see the Giants as a little rusty here which isn’t ideal when they are going to be going up against a team that is full of confidence. We saw all of the teams look like they needed a hit out for combinations to get up to speed and fire in full and if that is the case with Huddersfield, who couldn’t even have a friendly last week due to the rest of the domestic teams being in action in their own competition, then I think the Wolves could take advantage and sneak a win here.
Wigan Warriors vs Wakefield Trinity (20.00)
The other match on the evening looks like it could be a bit of a mismatch as the Wigan Warriors take on Wakefield Trinity. Both teams were beaten in their opening match last week and will be eager to get off the mark for this campaign.
Wigan were beaten by Hull KR on Saturday which was a surprise result, but to be fair it doesn’t look nearly as bad as it did at the time when you consider that KR won at Salford on Thursday. Wakefield lost at home to Catalans in their opening match. We won’t know how that form plays out until later in the week but you sense it wasn’t the best form guide in the world and as such Wigan are 20 point favourites with the bookmakers. I would expect them to cover that but the one concern would be their goal kicking. The last thing we need is Wigan to have a mare like last week and needing to score a couple more tries to cover the total because the kicks aren’t getting converted. Wakefield tend to be competitive against Wigan whenever they meet and while you would imagine Wigan will have plenty of joy offensively, they looked a little too open for my liking defensively so while I fancy they will have enough to cover I’ll let them do it rather than chase a big handicap this early in the season.
Tips
Back Warrington Wolves to beat Huddersfield Giants for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Boylesports
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