Super League: Table-toppers Leeds take on Warrington in Super 8s
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Leeds Rhinos are odds-on at 4/11 with Coral to beat Warrington in their first Super 8s match and, having won the League Leaders Shield and progressed to their second Challenge Cup final in a row, will be in high spirits.
However, the West Yorkshire outfit have lost twice in the regular season against Tony Smith’s men, so will be keen to put that right.
Their last encounter which took place at Headingley ended in a 29-10 win for the Wolves, though the Rhinos were missing key personnel in Ryan Hall and Tom Briscoe. Despite this, Kallum Watkins crossed on that occasion and the centre is odds-on at 10/11 to do so once more.
It was a superb performance from the Rhinos against St Helens last time out as they progressed to the Challenge Cup final with a 24-14 win.
Leeds’ big guns were on fire, with Zac Hardaker, Joel Moon, Jamie Peacock and Watkins all on the scoresheet. The former trio are 5/4, 13/8 and 6/1 respectively to cross anytime and coach Brian McDermott was hugely impressed with his side’s performance.
“I know it’s a big call but the first 20 minutes was the best I’ve seen us play. We got a grip of the game there and we didn’t let the grip go,” he said.
“Saints threw everything at us in the second half and we had to tough it out, so all in all it was a good mix. We were holding on for dear life at times. I wouldn’t say we were comfortable, we had to draw on some toughness and resilience to see it through.”
The Wolves though were hugely disappointing in their semi-final against Hull KR as they succumbed to a 26-18 defeat. Richie Myler and Ben Currie both crossed share the same 7/4 price in the anytime market while Joel Monaghan is odds-on at 8/11 to score anytime.
Coach Smith conceded that his side need to perform better: “We got off to a good start and then lost some control. We lost the tempo of the game which became stop-start and it suited Hull KR,” he said after the match.
“We didn’t make the adjustments when the game was so slow. They played to the situation and deserved to win. We didn’t play as well as we needed to. We made some hard work of our defence. We leaked a couple of softies.”
Coral’s top tip: Moon to score anytime at 13/8.
