Super League play-offs – Wigan Warriors v Leeds Rhinos
Two legendary rugby league teams, who are bitter rivals, fighting for a chance to make the Super League Grand Final – this weekend’s semi-final between Wigan and Leeds is one not to miss.
The sides met two weeks ago in the first round of play-off matches, a game which Leeds won 27-26 in controversial circumstances.
The man at the centre of the controversy was Leeds stand-off Danny Maguire, who grabbed hold of Wigan centre George Carmont off the ball in the final minutes and in doing so denied a break which could have given the Warriors a chance to level the match. It was seen as a blatant act of cheating from Maguire,
but he will miss the re-match as his season was ended through injury,
rather ironically caused by the professional foul that cost his opponents a chance a dramatic equalizer.
Maguire’s knee injury means forward Jamie Jones-Buchanan may make a first appearance since his foot injury in the Challenge Cup Final, and Kevin Sinfield will move to stand-off.
The Rhinos are bidding for a fourth successive Grand Final and their sixth in seven seasons, while Wigan haven't appeared at Old Trafford since 2003 and Leeds full-back Brent Webb thinks the added experience will be the difference between the teams.
"Most of the squad have been through this over the past three years and that really does help," Webb told the Yorkshire Post.
"I think our experience in the play-offs helped two weeks ago at Wigan. We could have easily thrown in the towel, but that's not in any of the players.
“When we play Wigan it's usually quite tight. Defences have been pretty good, so it just comes down to who takes advantage of their chances."
Paul Deacon is back in the Wigan squad for tomorrow's match after recovering from a hip injury which he sustained in last weeks’ victory over Hull KR. The veteran half-back is brought in at the expense of the young prop Ben Davies, and Sean O'Loughlin will return to loose forward to accommodate Deacon at half-back.
Along with Deacon, another man that will no doubt play a huge role on Saturday will be Super League’s top point’s scorer Pat Richards.
The classy winger is all but assured to be crowned Engage Super League Man of Steel at next week's end-of-season dinner in Manchester, but Richards has declared that personal accolades are secondary to the teams’ success.
"To be nominated for the Man Of Steel award is a massive honour for me," Richards told the club’s official website.
"But everyone here as a group has worked really hard this season and I've benefitted from that. It's my job to score tries and get points but I can only do that if the boys in the middle are doing their job so it's not down to me individually. I've been happy with my form lately but when you've got good players playing around who are at the top of their game then that helps lift your game as well.”
"Hopefully everyone at the club can continue to put in those sort of performances for a few weeks more and finish the season off well."
It’s going to take one more push from Richards and his troops to cap what has been a successful season so far, but if there’s one team you don’t want to face in playoff rugby it’s the Rhinos – this one could go down to the wire.
Prediction: Leeds by one to three points
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