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 Round’s Results:

• Huddersfield Giants 22 – Hull FC 16 (Nathan – 6, Ian – 1)
• Hull KR 40 – Bradford Bulls 16 (Nathan – 1, Ian – 2)
• Leeds Rhinos 46 – Toulouse Olympique XIII 0 (Nathan – 3, Ian – 2)
• Leigh Leopards 8 – Wigan Warriors 20 (Nathan – 0, Ian – 2)
• Castleford Tigers 18 – Warrington Wolves 48 (Nathan – 0, Ian – 1)
• York Knights 34 – St Helens 32 (Nathan – 1, Ian -1)
• Catalans Dragons 12 – Wakefield Trinity 32 (Nathan – 1, Ian -1)

Current Score: Nathan 180 – Ian 171

Hello, Ian? Can you hear me across that yawning chasm I’ve now opened up ahead of you? To be fair, I got very lucky this week, mainly due to Hull FC’s incompetence. I predicted they would lose by six points, and they did. So, thanks, Hull, keep up the bad work! On the negative side, neither of my bold predictions paid off, which is why I was lucky Huddersfield helped me out, so that’s taught me to take fewer chances on the underdogs. Lesson learned.

I don’t read Ian’s predictions before I copy & paste them onto here to maintain neutrality, but I would bet my house and everything in it that he’s gone for a Hull FC win¹. This is as much of an open goal as it is possible to get for St Helens; Hull FC can’t win a raffle with a fistful of tickets at the moment, and despite Saints’ poor form, they should comfortably have enough for this dismal Hull side.

Two clubs with assistant coaches in charge and one of them not even knowing who their players will be playing for next season has all the hallmarks of what could be a shockingly low-quality encounter. I am tipping Hull to just about get the job done just because they have quite a settled spine, and in two of their squad they have a good deal of knowledge of what to expect from their opposition. I think both teams really need to look to play the long game and keep it basic and simple, which I believe will suit the Black & Whites more, and there will also be less pressure on them naturally as the away team and having nothing but a currently battered pride to play for.

Rovers may have cruised to a relatively simple win last week, but I remain somewhat unenthused. Hull KR of 2025 would have likely put fifty or sixty past a beleagured Bradford side, but this week they struggled to rack up forty points. That being said, there have been minor shoots of improvement in the last two games (in that we won them), and despite this Castleford side being an unpredictable basket case who have beaten top teams this season at home, they look unmotivated and know their season is over, so I think they’ll put up minimal resistance here.

This really is a tough one to call, even despite my prediction of a heavy win for Rovers², because it genuinely could pivot on which version of each side actually turns up. Rovers scored 40 against Bradford, but from what I understand they were far from convincing. Castleford did what their visitors couldn’t recently in beating Leeds, but have since conceded 100 points in two games with more than half of them scored by a team of 12 men, so I guess it’s a case of good luck to anybody trying to guess which way this could go, I’m literally guessing a Rovers victory just because it’s one possibility of a multitude of possible outcomes.

I’ve very much enjoyed watching the York Knights in the Super League this season (round one notwithstanding). Despite being promoted to the league at a later date and with half the funding of everyone else, they’ve managed to make a good account of themselves in their debut Super League season. They currently sit above Super League mainstays like Huddersfield, Hull, and Castleford, as well as Bradford, who had the advantage of full central funding! Despite them claiming several scalps so far, I think Leigh just want, and need, the result more, especially after losing last week, and have more firepower than the plucky Knights do.

York will be understandably cockahoop with their victory over Saints, but I expect a Leopards outfit to be really fired up after being so thoroughly outsmarted by Wigan, and have too much in the tank for the emotionally drained Knights. I love the way York have continued to go about their unheralded business, but they made a slow start against Saints and a similar start would undoubtedly be heavily punished by the Leopards.

The next game is undoubtedly the pick of the round. First take on second on Friday night at the DIY Kitchens Stadium, as Wakefield host the league leaders, the Leeds Rhinos. I fully anticipate that this will be a hard-fought, closely-matched corker of a game, and I would typically give an advantage to the home team; however, Leeds this year have a habit of turning up for the bigger games, and underwhelming in the lower-profile ones, so I’m giving the edge to the Rhinos, for whom a victory would bring them one step closer to the LLS.

Two teams bang in form and with previous on this ground earlier in the season when Trinity ended the Rhinos’ Challenge Cup chances. Much is understandably being made of Leeds being without try scoring machine Maika Sivo, but Brodie Croft is not exactly far behind him and if he and half back partner Jake Connor click as they seem to nearly every week, that long old trip to Perpignan and back could easily catch up with the home side and see Leeds prove just as decisive at this venue as Wigan were not so long ago.

Now then, this tie gave me a headache to predict, and no mistake. Huddersfield are having an awful season, as the table shows, but they have won their last two games, and Catalans aren’t exactly on a blistering run of form, having lost three out of their last four games. It’s a toss-up, for me, but I’ve gone with Les Dracs purely because of their superior team on paper, but I wouldn’t be shocked if the Giants came away with a win either.

I think John Cartwright will push his side to react to a heavy home defeat and scalp the in-form Giants to keep themselves out of the wooden spoon equation. The Giants do look stronger and fitter now, but they’ve had two emotional wins, and I just think the strength of the Dragons’ pack and their not inconsiderable cutting edge, allied with the emotion of the occasion about the Giants’ future, could just play into the French outfit’s hands.

Toulouse are another promoted team punching well above their weight in the Super League in 2026. For a team whom many, myself included, predicted to be a shoo-in for the wooden spoon, they have left a not inconsiderable amount of egg on our faces with their displays in the last few months. That having been said, Wigan, at Wigan, are another kettle of fish entirely, especially a Wigan side on such a roll. TO will get well beaten, but that should reflect poorly on them, as most teams are being well beaten by Wigan recently.

Wigan on home territory, with the scent of a possible treble in their nostrils, should see them brush aside a Toulouse side who, for all their industry and commitment, are travelling a long distance to an upper-echelons club for the second time on the trot, having been demolished by Leeds last time out. Matt Peet’s Warriors will also have that extra spring in their step from easily overcoming both their local rivals in their last two games, so I expect them to rack up plenty in their points difference column again.

Poor Bradford, if it weren’t for bad luck, they’d have no luck at all. Going into their game against Rovers last Friday with seventeen injured players, the last thing they needed was more injuries, but fate is a spiteful beast, and they came away from Craven Park with a further three occupants for the treatment room. The result against Warrington is almost secondary; if they can get a team together, it’ll be a miracle in itself. Kurt Haggerty might well have to lace up his boots again at this rate! With all that being said, Warrington should have more than enough to get over the bruised and battered Bulls, even with their own injury problems.

Bradford look like a spent force these days; even though they still appear easy on the eye, they do also have the self-destruct button at very close quarters which they inevitably press more often than not. Warrington looked all over the place at first against Castleford, but when they got everything together they found it remarkably easy to put them away, and I expect much the same at Odsal as they take another step closer to playoff qualification.

Nathan’s Picks:

• St Helens 32 – Hull FC 10. First try scorer: Tristan Sailor
• Castleford Tigers 12 – Hull KR 32. First try scorer: Joe Burgess
• Leigh Leopards 36 – York Knights 18. First try scorer: Lachlan Lam
• Wakefield Trinity 20 – Leeds Rhinos 30. First try scorer: Lachlan Miller
• Huddersfield Giants 10 – Catalans Dragons 22. First try scorer: Charlie Staines
• Wigan Warriors 46 – Toulouse Olympique XIII 6. First try scorer: Jai Field
• Bradford Bulls 12 – Warrington Wolves 30. First try scorer: Ewan Irwin

Ian’s Picks:

• St Helens 14 – Hull FC 20. First try scorer: Jake Arthur
• Castleford Tigers 12 – Hull KR 42. First try scorer: Oliver Gildart
• Leigh Leopards 36 – York Knights 12. First try scorer: Innes Senior
• Wakefield Trinity 20 – Leeds Rhinos 32. First try scorer: Brodie Croft
• Huddersfield Giants 18 – Catalans Dragons 26. First try scorer: Charlie Staines
• Wigan Warriors 56 – Toulouse Olympique XIII 6. First try scorer: Liam Marshall
• Bradford Bulls 20 – Warrington Wolves 38. First try scorer: Toby King

Written by Nathan Major (Site editor & Hull KR fan), and Ian Judson (site contributor & Hull FC fan)

1. I’m well aware that I, too, often favour Rovers, but in my defence: I never said I wasn’t a hypocrite. ↩︎
2. Someone check on Ian; he’s predicted two Rovers wins in a row! ↩︎