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Missing stars due to Origin and wounded Wolves top the agenda.

Looking ahead to yet another bumper weekend of Rugby League action, I will be turning my attentions to two matches; St George Illawarra Dragons host Brisbane Broncos in the NRLand Harlequins play a home fixture against Warrington Wolves in the Super League.

ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS vs BRISBANE BRONCOS Friday Morning 10:45 am UK Time

The Dragons and the Broncos are both affected by the State of origin selections but one side will feel a little worse off and that is the Broncos. With 6 stars (Lockyer, Boyd, Hunt, Thaiday, Hannant and Wallace) missing, the bookmakers have given the Dragons a10 point head start on the handicaps. Take this handicap on and accept graciously a ten point start on the Broncos as there is little to choose between the depleted sides and the loss of Gasnier and Cooper are pretty significant to the Dragons. With no missing stars on either side, this would have been likely to be more or less off scratch from a betting perspective and I would have been advocating an outright back of the Broncos but in this case, I am not necessarily confident of victory but very confident of them finishing within a generous 10 points.

RECOMMENDATION -2 POINTS on Brisbane Broncos + 10 Handicap (3way) @ 1.91 (General)

HARLEQUINS RLFC vs WARRINGTON WOLVES Sunday Afternoon 15:00 pm UK Time

The Warrington Wolves go into today's game without recently departed coach, Paul Cullen, and believe me they will be hurting. A lot of the criticism levelled at Cullen, some of the big name signings that have arguably failed to deliver, will feel at least partially responsible for. Matt King is one prime example of a big money signing that came in on a crest of a wave from Manley Sea Eagles with huge things expected, and by his own admission, he has been poor.

Adrian Morley is a real leader on the pitch and you always expect him to give his all and Chris Hicks has been exemplary for the majority of this season but even some of the Cullen stalwarts like Martin Gleeson and Lee Briers have been pretty unimpressive this season thus far so expect a Wolves backlash today.

Harlequins have had a relatively successful start to this season in terms of their own expectations (they are level on points with Warrington ) and are always up for the fight. They triumphed away to Warrington when the sides last met and it was frankly a bizarre, low scoring affair which they edged 8-6.

This match will not be a cakewalk for Warrington but the 1.61 about them looks more than generous and I would hope that people can fill their points on this. If this was the first match of this season the price would probably have been something in the region of 1.44.

RECOMMENDATION - 4 POINTS on Warrington Wolves @ 1.61 (Totesport / Boylesports)

Crafty Stan 5th June 2008