Super League Betting Preview: Leeds and Saints set for close encounter

Super League / Graham Cunningham / 02 July 2010 / Leave a Comment

Leeds and Saint Helens meet on Saturday night

"Leeds recorded an impressive away win at Warrington last week, but Saints have been in fine form themselves recently and they might just have enough knowhow on defence to edge what ought to be a close encounter."

It's been the sort of PR week Super League can do without. Not surprisingly, the media have gone to town on the news that Castleford have been fined £40,000 because a section of their fans hurled homophobic abuse when Gareth Thomas lined up for Crusaders at The Jungle in March. Graham Cunningham gives his take on the story and pinpoints three potential punting angles for this weekend's big games.

Firstly this week, a big well done to the moronic Castleford fans who brought shame on the sport they are supposed to love this week by subjecting Gareth Thomas of Crusaders to a torrent of homophobic abuse.

Yes, very well done lads. Well done for fuelling the fire of every prejudiced outsider who assumes rugby league is a crude game played by thugs and watched by northern oiks. Well done for failing to realise that such blind bigotry has no place in any sport in the 21st century, let alone one which prides itself on true sportsmanship and respect for friend and foe.

And most of all, well done for failing to realise that anyone who crosses that white line to subject himself to the sort of terrifying hits Super League revolves around is more of a man than any boozed up moron using the cloak of a crowd in a pathetic attempt to impress his Beavis and Butthead buddies.

The Sky team of Eddie, Stevo and Barry McDermott condemned the incident in Wednesday's Boots 'N' All programme but it was disappointing to see such an important news item shuffled back to the second half of the show when it should have been a headliner.

Anyway, with that off my chest it's time to get back to the regular business of trying to pinpoint a winner or two for the weekend ahead. Last week proved another case of two out of three ain't bad, but I won't be going in strong this time around for the simple reason that we have several matchups that look very tricky to call.

That said, it could be worth siding with St Helens to win outright at Leeds on Saturday night at what will hopefully be a shade of odds against on Betfair. Leeds recorded an impressive away win at highflying Warrington last week, but Saints have been in fine form themselves recently and they might just have enough knowhow on defence to edge what ought to be a close encounter.

Harlequins and Bradford are the other two names to note as they prepare for what promise to be very closely fought games against Salford and Hull this weekend. Opposing Bradford has been lucrative recently, but Steve McNamara's men showed signs of a revival when pipped by Cas last week and with Hull deprived of the influential Sean Long the Bulls can make the most of home advantage to nick this in the outright market.

Harlequins travel north to Salford hoping to keep a very slim hope of a play-off place alive. Salford harbour similar hopes - so there is plenty on the line here - but Quins are probably a slightly stronger side when on song and if they bring their A game to the Willows then they are certainly capable of making the most of a small start.