The second day of the Super League XXVIII Magic Weekend begins with a clash between the two teams who were expected to battle it out for relegation this term when the Wakefield Trinity take on Leigh Leopards at St James’ Park.
Wakefield have lived up to that billing this season and head to Magic Weekend without a win on the campaign. They are now six points adrift at the foot of the table and could do with winning this against a Leigh side who are going very well on their return to Super League.
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 this one beginning at 11.30am and kick off coming at 12 noon.
Wakefield Trinity
I think most people expected Wakefield Trinity to struggle this season but I’m not sure too many expected their troubles to be as big as they are. To head to Magic Weekend without a single win is just ridiculous and the big problem is that there haven’t been many matches where they could legitimately argue that they have been unlucky. They are getting to the stage where they have to win else they are just going to be relegated without a fight.
The exodus of players at Wakefield was always going to catch up with them at some point and that looks like it has finally happened and it is already looking like an upward task for them to remain in the division at the end of the season. If they are going to give themselves any chance of beating the drop they have to find a way to put points on the board. Their 83 points from 13 games equates to a little over six points on average and that is bordering on pathetic.
Leigh Leopards
The Leigh Leopards were expected to be involved in the relegation battle if for no other reason than the fact that all the promoted teams tend to struggle in their first season back in the Super League. The Leopards have not read that script though and rather than worrying about potentially being relegated, the remainder of their campaign will be all about whether they can maintain their form and end up in the top six at the end of it.
Only three teams have conceded fewer points this term than the Leigh Leopards and two of those have played a match less so that shows how well Leigh are doing because usually the undoing of a new team in the league is the amount of tries they concede. If you wanted to be critical you could argue that we need to see more from the Leopards in attack with them having scored the fewest points of those in the top six, but that would be being picky in truth.
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Team News
Wakefield Trinity are expected to give a second debut to David Fifita in this match after the SOS call was answered by the powerful forward. Tom Lineham is back on the wing for Trinity while Jack Croft is also back for a second spell.
You can always tell when a side are going well because they often name an unchanged squad and that is exactly what Adrian Lam has had the luxury of doing here. He can unleash the top try scorer heading into Magic Weekend in Josh Charnley.
Betting
I’m not a massive fan of taking teams to cover big handicaps at the Magic Weekend but I can’t ignore Leigh Leopards only having to give a 16 point start to the Wakefield Trinity here. Even allowing for a potential improvement from Wakefield because of the stage that they are on, they have to improve so much just to be competitive that I am not convinced it is possible. I think the margin of the Leigh win is purely in their own hands here.
Leigh have already been to Wakefield in the Super League and Challenge Cup this season and picked up 32-0 and 40-12 victories and while the stage might bring the best out of Wakefield, it so easily could out of Leigh as well and given the dominance that Leigh have shown against Wakefield this season, that 16 point start suddenly doesn’t look enough. We saw three close and decent games on Saturday but I expect the Sunday opener to be a lot more one-sided.
Tips
Back Leigh Leopards (-16) to beat Wakefield Trinity for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Coral
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