Wakefield v Leeds
20:00 Friday 5th September 2008

Leeds -12pts 3pts @ 1.91 with Ladbrokes, Betfred
 
To my mind Leeds are coming back to the team we all trusted at the start of the season after a mid-season blip. The form they showed against Wigan in their last outing was as good as they've ever been and I really feel they can be strong challengers to St.Helens in the play-offs. The week's rest due to the Challenge Cup final will have done them a world of good and the time has allowed them to get a few more bodies on board. Scott Donald, Jamie Jones-Buchanan, Ryan Bailey and Ian Kirke are all named in the squad meaning only Clinton Toopi is missing from a full strength line-up. If they reproduce the form from that Wigan game there is no way Wakefield could live with them. There doesn't seem to me to be any reason why they will not. Already this season Wakefield have suffered two very big defeats to the Rhinos and I don't feel they have the personnel to trouble them.

The handicap is probably on the lowish side due to Wakefield's fine win against Catalan in France last time out but if you look a little deeper the French side were missing a host of top players and they don't have the squad depth of other leading teams. Before that Wakefield had been on a dreadful run and with their season not going any further than this week I expect a comfortable away victory. I had this one handicapped in the 16-18pt region.
 
the man