The opening day of the Super League XXVIII Magic Weekend begins with two sides who start the high profile round of matches in the top six of the table meeting at St James’ Park when the Salford Red Devils take on Hull KR.
Both teams have had good first parts of the season and will be looking to showcase their credentials on one of the biggest stages of the year. The winners here will end the match in the top four of the table, which feels like a decent incentive.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Arena channels with the build-up to the contest beginning at 1pm and kick off coming along at 1.30pm.
Salford Red Devils
It was a bit of a stop-start beginning to the season for the Salford Red Devils but they have clicked into a nice groove over the last couple of months with six wins from seven in all competitions and they looked to have St Helens on the ropes in the match they lost in that period too. That is largely in keeping with how they went about their business last season and they will be looking to not only secure a top six finish from here, but end the campaign high enough to give them a better chance of reaching Old Trafford.
You would imagine Salford will be feeling really good about their chances in this match because the wide expanses of St James’ Park will give them plenty of width to throw the ball around and look to bring their vast array of skills to the party. The likes of Brodie Croft and Marc Sneyd will have the room to bring their forwards into play and the Red Devils could be a very tough unit to contain over the course of the 80 minutes here.
Hull KR
Hull KR blazed a decent trail in the early part of the campaign but successive defeats leading up to the Magic Weekend have just left them a little adrift from the top of the table. Those two defeats have come against the top two so there is no need for them to panic but they won’t want a third straight loss here as that would start to undo some of the good work they have done so far over the course of the campaign.
Although the Robins lost to Wigan last week they took them to golden point extra time and there wasn’t much in that match so they should have brought plenty of confidence away from that defeat. We know Hull KR have some trickery and skill of their own in the halves and their backs are potent from a number of positions. The key for Hull KR here will be whether they can contain the pace and power that Salford have up the middle.
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Team News
Salford Red Devils will be without their starting hooker Andy Ackers for this match. The England international is out with concussion but there is a positive for the Red Devils with centre Tim Lafai available for Paul Rowley.
Ethan Ryan is the new injury issue for Hull KR but they will be able to welcome influential full-back Lachlan Coote back for this match which will be a boost. George King also returns to add power to the forward pack.
Betting
When I saw this was a fixture at Magic Weekend I had it in my mind to look to the point total for the match. The line is 40.5 which looks on the low side to me. Hull KR are 11-1 on the over on that line in the last 12 Magic Weekends. I’m only going back that far because the format needed bedding in before we saw the best of it. These two met at the Magic Weekend back in 2019 when there were 42 points in the game and I would say both are much better teams now.
Salford Red Devils are 9-2 on the over in the last 11 Magic Weekends and the one before that had exactly 40 points when they played the London Broncos so Salford aren’t not averse to high scoring matches. I’m convinced the wide open expanses of St James’ Park will lead to a lot of high scoring matches this weekend and this one in particular because both teams have kickers who are reliable so fours get turned into sixes regularly. I like the over here.
Tips
Back Over 40.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with Betfair
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