Super League XXX Magic Weekend – St Helens vs Leeds Rhinos Tips, TV and Betting Preview

We close out the opening day of the Super League XXX Magic Weekend with what could be considered the best of the three matches on paper when St Helens go up against the Leeds Rhinos in a battle littered with history.

These two are used to facing off in the Grand Final and both have their sights on being at the big show at the end of the season. They get the chance to flex their muscles against each other on a different high profile stage here.

Where to watch

The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Action channel with the build-up to this one beginning around 7.15pm ahead of the 7.30pm kick off.

St Helens

St Helens go into the Magic Weekend in fifth spot in the table which is perfectly acceptable but they will be looking to push on from here and try and secure a top four spot which would guarantee a home quarter final were they not able to get to the top two and bypass that stage of the postseason. Saints have struggled for consistency for a while now though but have the prime stage to show what they are all about in this one.

In the main St Helens have been solid enough defensively, although I do think it is fair to suggest that they can be opened up a little by the bigger sides even allowing for the fact that it took Wigan Warriors a while to do it on Good Friday. The question though, especially against the better teams, comes around their attack. Tristan Sailor has taken the lesser sides to the cleaners but against Hull KR, Warrington and Wigan, three big sides, they have amassed a total of 36 points.

Leeds Rhinos

I don’t think it was ever going to take much for this to be a better season than the last one for the Leeds Rhinos and the eyes will tell us that it has been although they are only just in sixth spot in the table and they are still struggling to put consecutive results and performances together. There are some injury reasons for that but this is a Rhinos squad that should be safely inside the top six so at some point they will be looking to push on and be counted.

The good news for the Rhinos is that they have improved defensively. Only the top two teams in Super League have conceded fewer points than them so Brad Arthur will be delighted that despite players coming and going due to injury that their structure hasn’t been dented. The Australian will be looking for more from his side in attacking areas. You would expect that to come when they can get all of their big players on the park at the same time but here is a chance to show they have what it takes.

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Team News

St Helens will finally be able to call upon the services of Jake Wingfield once again after he has cleared head injury protocols while new signing Deon Cross has also been added to the squad and could make his debut in this one.

Brad Arthur has named an unchanged squad for this fixture which means that the Leeds Rhinos remain without the likes of Brodie Croft but Ryan Hall and Jake Connor have been passed fit to play despite picking up knocks last week.

Betting

In an ideal world Leeds Rhinos would have Brodie Croft in the halves but I still think there is value on them in this match. St Helens suddenly don’t really impress me in the truly big games and although this isn’t a derby clash or a semi-final or trophy match it is a big game and they just feel vulnerable. We’ve seen that in the last two weeks when they lost to Wigan Warriors and then Warrington Wolves. Saints have actually already lost three times to Warrington this season which fills me with doubts over them here.

Leeds were beaten by Hull KR last week but they put up a real challenge in what was a decent match and they showed that they can handle the big matches when they beat Wigan Warriors earlier in the campaign. In the main Leeds have a good go against the better sides and if Jake Connor can catch fire on a stage which is perfectly suited to him then I think he can lead the Rhinos to glory. This feels like a much closer match than an 11/8 outsider so I’ll go with the Rhinos as the value play here.

Tips

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