The Rules:

• Each person predicts the results of every Super League match.
• Predicting the correct winner will get you 1 point.
• If the predictor’s scoreline has the same winning margin, then 4 points will be awarded (only if the predicted winning team is correct).
• Correctly predicting the exact score will win you an additional 5 points.
• Two bonus points will be awarded if the first try scorer is predicted correctly, whereas 1 point will be awarded if the selected player scores during the match.

Last Week’s Results:

• Castleford Tigers 40 – Bradford Bulls 28 (Nathan – 0, Ian – 2)
• Hull KR 52 – St Helens 10 (Nathan – 3, Ian – 0)
• York Knights 14 – Wakefield Trinity 26 (Nathan – 2, Ian – 1)
• Wigan Warriors 16 – Huddersfield Giants 34 (Nathan – 0, Ian – 1)
• Leigh Leopards 21 – Toulouse Olympique XIII 20 (Nathan – 1, Ian – 1)
• Hull FC 24 – Catalans Dragons 20 (Nathan – 1, Ian – 2)
• Leeds Rhinos 26 – Warrington Wolves 22 (Nathan – 0, Ian – 1)

Current Score: Nathan 41 – Ian 51

Drat and blast it! Ian continues to be the jammiest bugger alive by scrambling a point from two incorrect winners by virtue of his pick for try scorer. One of which he changed on the day because his original pick wasn’t playing! Honestly, he could fall into a sewer and come up smelling of roses, this guy. Anyway, it’s a tasty week this week, it being derby week, so no prizes for guessing who we went for in the Hull derby…

This past weekend’s Super League action kicked off in Castleford, where the Tigers were looking to bounce back from their humbling at the hands of the Warrington Wolves a week prior. Things didn’t start well for Ryan Carr’s men as Esan Marsters crashed over in the fourth minute for his first try of the season. The Tigers hit back, however, through a Jason Qareqare try (the first of a hat trick for the Fijian winger), and things were more or less even for the first half, with Castleford going into the half-time break with a 22-16 lead. In the second half, however, they pulled away and sent the Bulls back to Odsal de-horned in a 40-28 victory in the weekend’s highest-scoring encounter.

Speaking of high-scoring encounters, there was another on Friday night at Craven Park, as reigning champions Hull KR found another gear at last by beating an (admittedly depleted) St Helens side 52-10. There were hat tricks for Joe Burgess and Mikey Lewis, with the latter running the show for the World Club Champions, looking close to his unplayable best once more alongside the ever-dependable Tyrone May in the halves. The Robins took a commanding 30-0 lead into half-time, and despite slim hopes of a Saints comeback when Owen Dagnall scored two minutes after the break, Rovers pulled away again, scoring another 22 points before Saints registered a consolation point in the 72nd minute.

Friday night also saw the York Knights welcome Wakefield Trinity to the LNER Community Stadium. The Knights have so far proved a tough team to play in the opening rounds of the season, even in defeat, and despite a twelve-point defeat here, they once again proved to be a hard team to break down. It finished 26-14 to Wakefield in the end, but it proved once again that it is unwise to underestimate the Knights.

In the shock of the round, bottom-placed (and coach-less) Huddersfield Giants defeated table-toppers Wigan Warriors on Saturday night. I think it’s fair to say that not many people were giving the Giants a chance going into Saturday’s game at the Brick. Despite having the likes of Adam Clunes and Niall Evalds back (both of whom had excellent games), the sacking of Luke Robinson earlier in the week seemed to spell certain doom for the Giants at the Brick Community Stadium. Alas, it proved not to be the case, as a galvanised Huddersfield shocked the Warriors 34-16 in their own backyard. All eyes now turn to their clash against York this Saturday to see if this result was a flash-in-the-pan or signs of a revival for the Giants.

Toulouse provided the first of what proved to be two French near-comebacks this weekend, falling to the Leigh Leopards 21-20 in golden point extra time, via the boot of Gareth O’Brien. The Leopards seemed to be in control at half-time, taking a 20-6 advantage into the break. The dominance they showed in the first forty abandoned them in the second half, however, as Olympique fought back to level the scores 20-20 at full-time. Despite falling short in golden point, this result should be taken as a positive for Olympique and for the decision to expand the Super League, as all three teams are proving to be more competitive than anyone imagined before the season kicked off.

Sunday saw Super League celebrate its 30th birthday with a double header. First came Hull FC v Catalans Dragons, before Leeds v Warrington officially marked the occasion as two sides who met on the inaugural weekend of the competition came head-to-head thirty years later.

In West Hull, Catalans almost went one better than their French compatriots, chasing down a Hull side who held a 22-0 lead going into half-time. The black and whites dominated those first forty minutes, as the scoreline suggests, but they left that dominance in the changing room as they fell apart in the second half, almost allowing Les Dracs to catch them in the final ten minutes. That final ten minutes proved to be some of the most exciting of the weekend. Zack Hardaker gave Hull FC a four-point lead via a penalty kick on the back of some fairly brain-dead Catalans decisions, sending the Dragons back to Catalonia empty-handed.

The celebrations ramped up at Headingley as names and faces from the past were brought back to celebrate 30 years of the Super League. Thirty years previously, Warrington ran out the winners on that first-ever Super League weekend; it was to be the Rhinos who took the spoils this time out, however. Maika Sivo claimed yet another Super League hat-trick (his third of the season already) to hand the Wolves their first defeat of the season. It was a suitably close and entertaining game for such a grand birthday celebration (complete with special birthday cake!), and it finished 26-22 to the Rhinos.

Nathan’s Picks:

• Hull KR 32 – Hull FC 12. First try scorer: Mikey Lewis
• St Helens 12 – Wigan Warriors 36. First try scorer: Liam Marshall
• Bradford Bulls 22 – Leeds Rhinos 30. First try scorer: Ash Handley
• Huddersfield Giants 24 – York Knights 26. First try scorer: David Nofoaluma
• Warrington Wolves 32 – Leigh Leopards 10. First try scorer: Matty Ashton
• Catalans Dragons 28 – Toulouse Olympique XIII 12. First try scorer: Charlie Staines
• Castleford Tigers 18 – Wakefield Trinity 30. First try scorer: Jack Sinfield

Ian’s Picks:

• Hull KR 14 – Hull FC 26. First try scorer: John Asiata
• St Helens 18 – Wigan Warriors 28. First try scorer: Adam Keighran
• Bradford Bulls 20 – Leeds Rhinos 30. First try scorer: Jake Connor
• Huddersfield Giants 30 – York Knights 18. First try scorer: Niall Evalds
• Warrington Wolves 36 – Leigh Leopards 14. First try scorer: Matty Ashton
• Catalans Dragons 26 – Toulouse Olympique XIII 18. First try scorer: Olly Ashall-Bott
• Castleford Tigers 24 – Wakefield Trinity 18. First try scorer: Jason Qareqare

Written by Nathan Major (Site editor & Hull KR fan)