Millenium Magic Predictions
Well this is my first post since moving wholesale over to Love Rugby League and I thought I’d make
it a little introduction for those who’ve never stumbled across Fifthandlast.com.
I’ve been involved with Love Rugby League all through the rebrand and have written guests post
and worked with the team since back in the days when the site was Last Tackle. I’ve been writing online about rugby league
online for about 3 years and with all my work on Love Rugby League it has seemed daft to keep two sites so I’m moving
house.
For those who haven’t been to Fifthandlast.com then you won’t be familiar that I aim to bring a bit of
light heartedness to rugby league coverage and just try and enjoy it, sometimes we just get too caught up thinking about
serious things like how much of a “farce” the Super League would be without Wakefield (seriously Glenn? –
WAKEFIELD MUST BE SAVED) I do occasionally drop into serious mode but don’t worry I’ll warn you if that happens.
I come armed with a few regular features which you’ll see over the next few weeks and I’ll probably pick out some of the better bits posted on my old site which gives me an excuse to repost some of my favourite stuff like this (sorry Wigan fans)
She’s on the left at about 13 seconds in, I mean seriously no one likes seeing Wigan fans that upset do they? One feature I’ll also be revisiting is the rubbish look a likes, there’s plenty out there and if you fancy emailing your suggestions in to dave@loverugbyleague.com you can have a spotters badge, you may get an actual badge we’ll see. To start there is this, not strictly a look a like, from an advert I saw in league weekly this week. Sam Tomkins look likes Andy Lynch and Andy Lynch looks like Sam Tomkins apparently.
I thought I’d kick off though with one of my old regulars, me embarrassing myself by predicting the
weekend’s Super League results. These will be the scores I’ll be putting into the tipping competition
but I don’t think I’m allowed to win anything so don’t worry.
It should be an interesting weekend, especially with Harlequins coach Rob Powell trying some unorthodox squad line ups:
“…wily Chad Randall at hooker, Luke Dorn at full back and Luke Gale at full back” – The Times (article behind the paywall I think)
Two full backs! Is that the new approach Quins needed?
So here’s how I reckon Millenium Magic will go down.
Huddersfield 18 – 24 Warrington – Both strong looking teams on paper, but I expect Warrington to get a bit of early revenge for their playoff defeat.
Catalans 24 – 6 Harlequins – I can’t see too much remarkable happening for either team this season I’m reckoning on a decent defensive performance from Catalans and a few tries to boot.
Castleford 24 – 16 Wakefield – I reckon Cas could pull out a few surprises this year but a win against Wakefield wouldn’t be one, with all the off field shenanigans I can’t see Wakefield getting off to a particularly solid start.
Saints 6 – 18 Wigan – I do like to have a more unlikely pick every week and Saints to only score 6 on the face of it sounds like that, but a team getting used to a new coach and having been solidly shut down in the Grand Final by the Wigan team they’ll face at the weekend won’t be on fire. I wouldn’t expect them to be shipping tries and losing by a stupid margin though.
Crusaders 16 – 30 Salford – I reckon this one could be closer with Salford especially will be rather an unknown, a large number of changes off the field but missing their two first choice props through bans from friendly matches won’t help.
Bradford 28 – 32 Leeds – Both teams out with a point to prove this season, Bradford having been seemingly in a terminal decline in recent seasons. I think Leeds will have the edge in the opener but it will be interesting to see how much has changed by the time these teams meet later in the season.
Hull FC 32 – 26 Hull KR – The one true super league derby should produce a good, close game and hopefully a good end to the weekend. I reckon Hull to edge this one with a couple of late tries maybe?
I won’t be amongst those in Cardiff but for those going I’m sure it’ll be a great weekend, why not listen to the Love Rugby League podcast on your way down to Cardiff!