Super League Betting: Wigan can halt Hull resurgence

Stuart Jones
03 August 2012

Sam Tomkins' team should prevail again on Friday

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Hull won their derby last week but the league leaders will provide a sterner test tonight. Meanwhile, rivals Warrington can cover a small handicap against Saints, says Stuart Jones.

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Back Wigan Warriors -14.5 points @ 1.9110/11
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Hull FC may well have pulled off a shock when beating derby rivals Hull KR at Craven Park when last seen on Sky, but they have an almighty task on their hands if they are to beat the league leaders Wigan at the DW Stadium this Friday night.

Peter Gentle's side have struggled with injuries for pretty much the entire season, but even without several of their star players, they were able to out-muscle KR and Danny Houghton tore the home side apart from dummy half.

Unfortunately for Hull, there is little reason to think that they will be able to dominate the contact area to such an extent against a much classier Wigan forward pack, meaning their suspect defence is going to be a big issue.

Wigan themselves are without several first-team players themselves, including Sean O'Loughlin and Brett Finch, but they have proved on numerous occasions this season that they have plenty of strength in depth, notably when putting 50 points past Leeds at Headingley in June.

Wigan know that the Warrington Wolves are still breathing down their neck in the race for the Regular Season shield, and still have Sam Tomkins available to run things from stand-off if needs be, so should be up to covering a handicap of 14.5 points. They would look a very good bet indeed if Danny Houghton failed to recover in time for Friday.

Monday's live action comes from Langtree Park as St Helens play Warrington in what could well be one of the games of the season. Both sides arrive into this game in good form, the home side comfortably overcoming Huddersfield last week, whilst Wire racked up a half century of points against Bradford despite resting the like of Ryan Atkins and Trent Waterhouse.

Saints put one over the Wolves at the Halliwell Jones earlier in the season, a blistering first-half performance setting them up for a 28-16 win that day. The Wolves, who were known for their fast starts themselves this time last year, will be conscious of letting them get away so early in the game this time, and appear to be in much better form than they were back in March.

Tony Smith has been able to rotate his squad well over the last couple of months and the Wolves look to be peaking at about the right time. The Wolves really need to win this one to stay in touch of Wigan and Smith must have had one eye on this game from a while back given his squad selections. I wouldn't expect anything but a full-strength side named for this contest and prefer Warrington getting a small start on the handicap.

I'm not expecting there to be much between the sides over the 80 minutes and punters could do a lot worse than back a drop goal at any time at around the 4.5 mark. Monaghan, Briers and Lomax are all capable of slotting a one-pointer in a tight affair.