This Week's Rugby League


A couple of small bets to start the weekend for the Murrayfield Magic fixtures. As the season progresses the bookies seem to be agreeing more and more with my numbers. I guess we've all seen the same things and have to rely on history to form our prices.

Warrington v Hull KR



3rd May 19:00 BST

It's fair to say that Warrington have improved significantly in the last couple of weeks with a big win at Bradford and a comfortable victory over Huddersfield. With the personnel in their ranks it's about time. But Warrington are Warrington and they are more than capable of going from the sublime to the ridiculous and they face a Hull KR team in steady, consistent form that has seen them reach the lofty position of 2nd in the ladder.

There will be plenty of confidence in the KR ranks and with Dobson and Cooke starting to gel in the halfbacks and the recent return of Vella to give them big go-forward I just had to make them favourites for this one.
This bet will look even better if Lee Briers, who is a doubt for Wire, misses out. Briers pulls the strings for this team and their two recent wins were when he returned from missing the Easter defeats at Salford and home to Castleford.

I had Hull KR by 2-4pts which isn't too far away from the scratch on offer but I'll take my chances with a small stake.

Pick: Hull KR 2pts @ 1.91 with PaddyPower, Sky Bet , Bluesq and Coral

Super League Table

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	PTS
1	St Helens	11	9	0	2	339	178	18
2	Hull KR	11	7	1	3	284	189	15
3	Leeds	11	7	0	4	243	151	14
4	Huddersfield	11	7	0	4	250	197	14
5	Wakefield	11	7	0	4	265	221	14
6	Castleford	11	7	0	4	273	273	14
7	Harlequins RL	10	6	0	4	263	198	12
8	Hull	11	6	0	5	232	224	12
9	Wigan	12	5	0	7	282	249	10
10	Catalans Dragons	11	4	0	7	246	302	8
11	Warrington	11	4	0	7	249	314	8
12	Bradford	10	3	1	6	203	279	7
13	Salford	11	3	0	8	176	361	6
14	Celtic Crusaders	10	0	0	10	142	311	0

 

Wigan v St.Helens



2nd May 19:00 BST

St.Helens were shocked last week with defeat at home to Bradford after a string of magnificent performances. I sensed that Saints thought they only had to turn up to win that one after all the talk in the week of cricket scores after Bradford's collapse against Wire. It doesn't work like that in top-level rugby league and you need focus to beat every team.

There's little doubt that defeat, coupled with this fixture against their archenemies will ensure that their minds will be switched on. Puletua and Gidley who missed out last week are named in the squad and they are massive players for Saints. Puletua is a man mountain and gets great yards whilst Gidley is such a professional and is the reason that Ade Gardner, his winger, is an international.

Wigan and Saints met recently at the JJB in wet conditions, which doesn't really suit Saints, but they still came away with a 9pt victory. At this neutral venue I can't make a case for Wigan having such a low start.
OK, they've won their last two but Celtic and Wakefield are not St.Helens. They capitulated in France the week before those two and it would be no surprise to me, if the weather is set fair, if Saints run up a big score. I'm not saying Wigan can't win, but it's all about staking when you disagree with the odds or handicaps. I had Saints by 12. For the more cautious the match odds price of 1.33 is more than fair but I'll take my chances at the higher odds.

Pick: St.Helens –8 2pts @ 1.91 with Sportingbet
 
The man