It was first blood to the NRL in the World Club Series on Friday night when the Sydney Roosters did a real job on St Helens but the series cranks up a notch on Saturday evening when arguably the biggest names in both competitions collide at the DW Stadium as Wigan Warriors take on the Brisbane Broncos.
This will be the second year in a row these two giants of the 13 man game will meet after they played out one of the matches of the season last year. Brisbane won that match in golden point extra time in a really physical, high quality battle and all the ingredients are there for an exact repeat.
Wigan have begun the season very strongly. They battled past the Catalans Dragons in foul conditions in the opening week of the season and then outlasted Huddersfield in their own back yard last week despite missing a couple of key players.
George Williams missed out last week quite late on but he is being tipped for a return in this match which will be a big boost. Sam Tomkins remains on the injured list, as does his brother Joel but Shaun Wane reports a largely clean bill of health aside from that.
Brisbane Broncos were denied the NRL crown last year by one point in an epic final so Wayne Bennett’s men arrive in England eager to prove a point. They will want to win this match a little easier than they were able to last year and it has to be said they look a really strong side.
Half back Ben Hunt will miss this match through suspension so Anthony Milford and Kodi Nikorima are set to team up in the halves but it is the forward pack that the Broncos are famed for. They look very strong in there with the likes of Corey Parker, Adam Blair and Sam Thaiday a real strong unit.
I’m really looking forward to this match. I think it will be the best of the three games to watch in the weekend and it could be a real old school, physical, defensive battle especially if the conditions are nasty which they could well be.
In truth I can’t pick a winner here. I’m very much favouring the Australian sides this weekend but I think Wigan are best equipped to cope in this series and I fancy they’ll give this a really good go. I’m not sure I’d want to be asking the Broncos to give up a score in what is surely going to be a tight game.
I was hoping we would have a total points line to go at but at the time of writing there isn’t one so I think this is a match to get a bit jiggy with and search for some value that we wouldn’t normally find in your average Super League match.
I think both sides and both coaches will expect points to be hard to come by in this match. Not only are both defences as tough as teak but there is going to be rain around so conditions aren’t going to suit free flowing rugby, not that either are famed for that anyway.
With that in mind it could be that if there is a penalty within kicking range early on in the match whoever gets it might decide to take the points on offer. Both sides have a reliable goal kicker and every point could well count here as we saw 12 months ago.
Kicking an early penalty became the norm at times in the NRL last season so I’ve no doubt Brisbane will kick for goal if given the chance but I fancy that given how badly Wigan want revenge they might treat this as a cup final and do likewise. I’ll risk a point each on a penalty being the first scoring play.
I’ll also chance an anytime try scorer where Liam Farrell looks overpriced. He is involved in a lot of Wigan’s attacking plays and he ran a try in when these two met last year. He’s already off the mark for the season having gone over against Huddersfield last week and he often contributes in the big matches with his solid support play. At 4/1 he’s worth a bit of support in this one.
Back First Scoring Play – Wigan penalty for a 1/10 stake at 11.00 with Stan James
Back First Scoring Play – Brisbane penalty for a 1/10 stake at 10.00 with Stan James
Back L.Farrell Anytime Tryscorer for a 2/10 stake at 5.00 with Ladbrokes
Back him here:
