Super League XXX – Catalans Dragons vs Leeds Rhinos Tips, TV and Betting Preview

The Super League XXX weekend continues on Saturday evening when we head to France for the match between the Catalans Dragons and the Leeds Rhinos in a game which could be pivotal to the season of both even this early in the piece.

These two sides have made much different starts to the season to each other with the Dragons yet to really get going at all while the Rhinos look to be getting up to speed nicely and it will be interesting to see whether that is how this one plays out.

Where to watch

The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports+ channel with the short build-up beginning at 5.25pm ahead of the 5.30pm kick off.

Catalans Dragons

There was a large exodus of players at the Catalans Dragons at the end of last season and a strong turnover of players in the winter but I think the French outfit would have expected to have been better than they have been so far this term. They have lost their opening three matches and while defeats to the Warrington Wolves and Leigh Leopards away from home probably aren’t going to come back to haunt them, the one to Hull FC on home soil might do.

The big surprise in those defeats is that the Dragons have only put up 22 points in total in them and if they are going to get up and running here they are probably going to need to double that tally here you would think. The other concern is that the longer the match at Leigh went on last week the more out of ideas they became and their defence got exposed a little too easily so there is a lot of work for Steve McNamara and his men to do quickly if they are going to get up to speed.

Leeds Rhinos

The Leeds Rhinos looked like they might be in for another season where they flattered to deceive when they lost to Wakefield Trinity in their opening match of the campaign but to their credit they have bounced back with two wins. You can quite rightly question what they have beaten in the Salford Red Devils and the Castleford Tigers but they have beaten them emphatically and ultimately the Rhinos can only beat what is put in front of them.

The good thing about the win over Castleford is that it was done with three key players missing, all of whom return for this match. The thing which will have annoyed Leeds is how they allowed Castleford to gloss the scoreboard because the Rhinos were much more comfortable winners than the score suggested but Leeds are scoring lots of points so far this season and until they took their foot off the gas last week they hadn’t conceded very many.

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Team News

Catalans Dragons will feel happy that they have three key players back in Sam Tomkins, Chris Satae and Theo Fages who have missed the start of the season due to injury but how quickly they can all gel will be their big issue.

Leeds Rhinos have three key backs back for this match with Lachlan Miller, Matt Frawley and Brodie Croft all returning to their squad. Jarrad O’Connor will make his 100^th appearance for the Rhinos if he is selected for the game.

Betting

There will be a time where the Catalans Dragons gel and show some of their best form but the signs aren’t forthcoming that it is going to be here so I think the natural pick has to be the Leeds Rhinos in this one. If the Dragons were keeping the score down at the other end then you could make more of a case for them because their attack will click into groove at some point but they aren’t really even doing that when you consider that Leigh Leopards scored 34 against them last week.

Leeds Rhinos have looked good the last two weeks and they have their two half-back stars back for this one and their first-choice full-back which will give Brad Arthur plenty of selection headaches to contend with and that is no bad thing. We should acknowledge that Leeds don’t have the best record in France recently but right now these two teams are in different places and I think at around 11/8 the Rhinos are the value to win this one.

Tips

Back Leeds Rhinos to beat Catalans Dragons for a 3/10 stake at 2.38 with Sky Bet