 |
| Denny Solomona - 18 tries |
Both Warrington Wolves and Catalans Dragons opened up 14-0
first half leads over Castleford Tigers and Wakefield Trinity Wildcats
respectively before succumbing to fightbacks and losing the games.
Hull FC opened up a 10-0 lead over Hull KR before falling
behind 16-10 in the second half but then scored three converted tries to take
the points.
The two halves of the Wolves v. Tigers game could not have
been more different with the Wolves dominating the first 30 minutes of the
contest before the Tigers got a foothold in the game towards half time.
In the second half it was all the Tigers as Luke Gale took
control of the game and Denny Solomona helped himself to another two tries to
take his season’s tally to 18 as Castleford backed up their recent demolition
of Leeds Rhinos with 34 unanswered points against the Wolves.
The bad news for the Tigers is that a foot injury sustained
in the match by Ben Roberts, in his first match for 10 weeks, will side line
the former New Zealand and Samoa international for the rest of the year.
Coach Daryl Powell must be wishing that his team could show
more consistency than they have so far this season.
The previously mentioned demolition of the Rhinos was
totally out of the blue after they had suffered successive league defeats to
Wigan Warriors, against Hull KR in which they conceded 58 points at home and
against St. Helens.
This was the Wolves second defeat in a row and deprived them
of the top spot. |
| Yes - we're playing again next week!! |
If I was Denis Betts or, definitely, Brian McDermott I would
be gravely concerned about the form of my team and their prospects of improving
over the rest of the year.
Betts’ Widnes side have swiftly lost the boring tag of being
Super League’s answer to Leicester City by capitulating to 8 straight defeats
since they inflicted the Wigan Warriors first home Super League defeat in
nearly 2 years back on the 17th March – a week after a huge 46-6
defeat of Hull FC.
Consecutive defeats to Warrington (twice), St. Helens,
Catalans, Castleford, Wakefield, Hull KR and Salford at Magic Weekend have sent
them tumbling down to 8th place and they would have been in 9th
but for Salford’s recent 6 point deduction.
Even worse is the fact they seemed to have stopped scoring
tries and are no longer playing the free flowing style of rugby that brought
them their early season success and they seem to have a real battle on to stay
in the top 8. They were awful last weekend at Hull KR and were not much better
against Salford.
Meanwhile, everyone except Brian McDermott and Gary
Hetherington can see that the current events at Leeds Rhinos have gone beyond a
crisis and are a fully blown disaster.
Just like every other club in Super League the Rhinos can
point to injuries as having caused them serious disruption this year. They also
lost great players at the end of last year and have replaced them with
sub-standard personnel who have come nowhere near to filling the void left by Sinfield,
Peacock, Aiton and Leuluai.
Add in the fact that the floods in Leeds over Christmas
decimated their training facilities then you can understand that their start to
the season may have been slow.
However, to be using that as part of the excuse for such
inadequate performances 5 months down the line makes it look like they are not
willing to face up to the fact that when the Rhinos team crosses the whitewash
they look rudderless, have no leadership and have lost all of the confidence
and swagger that they have had for the last 10 years.
The likes of Zak Hardaker and Kallum Watkins were world
class last year but are seriously struggling in 2016 – I suppose that’s not
surprising when you look at the confidence of the team as a whole.
Their attack is not what it has been for a number of years
now and even though they still lead the way in off loads they have scored far
fewer tries than any other team and have also made more errors than anyone else
and only Hull KR and St. Helens have missed more tackles than the Rhinos.
Twitter was going into meltdown on Saturday night with
Rhinos fans severely unhappy with the fact that their team is not even
competing let alone winning games and it seems to be this fact above all else
that is getting to the Rhinos fans – after winning the treble last year they
are not even competing with teams that they should be beating just a few months
down the line.
Even though he is a multi-trophy winning coach Brian
McDermott has never seemed to be overly popular with the Rhinos fans and after
the last 3 weeks where they have been overran by the Huddersfield Giants in the
Challenge Cup and by Castleford, embarrassingly conceding 52 points at home,
and Wigan at Magic Weekend in Super League then a change in coach may become a
reality. |
| Saints Coach Cunningham!! |
The former international hooker is a club legend and even
has a statue of himself erected outside Langtree Park but that is not stopping
a section of Saints fans questioning his ability to lead the club to further
glories.
St. Helens, unlike the Rhinos, are at least a competitive
outfit and currently sit in 5th place, just two points off the top 4 and a further
two points behind Hull FC and had won three Super League games on the bounce leading
into the Magic Weekend.
However, they were extremely poor against Huddersfield
Giants and were booed off by a band of their supporters following an
unconvincing and disappointing 48-20 defeat to a team that is second from
bottom of the league and had won only three games all year prior to their best
win of the year on Sunday.
Saints have been a mixed bag all season and have generally
been inconsistent and Cunningham has been criticised by Saints fans for some of
his team selections with players playing out of position plus his seeming early
season reluctance to play Theo Fages in the half backs.
The heavy home Challenge Cup defeat to Hull FC did not go
down well with the supporters either and with a real fight on their hands to
make the semi finals of the play off’s, Cunningham will have to come up with
something special to keep his team’s supporters off his back.
Of all the teams currently sat in the bottom four, the
Giants are the most likely to break into the top 8 although any thoughts of
another top 4 finish may have to be put on hold until 2017.
The Giants are packed with power and pace and played really
well against Saints on Sunday with Danny Brough leading the way and with the
ability of the likes of Leroy Cudjoe, Jermaine McGillivary, Ryan Brierley,
Michael Lawrence, Jamie Ellis, Joe Wardle and Ryan Hinchcliffe it would be no
surprise to see their results improve and them make a charge for the top 8.
 |
| Miller celebrates winning drop goal. |
They were odds on favourites to finish bottom of the league
this year, even their fans wouldn’t bet against it, and they lost 6 of their
first 7 league games to back up the predictions.
Brian Smith stood down as Head Coach and lambasted the club
owner Michael Carter and said that the club was in serious trouble due to the
supposed cost cutting measures put in place by Carter who, in response, said
that Smith was the highest paid Trinity coach ever and was given the biggest
playing budget the club had ever had. They had also invested in the strength,
conditioning and fitness side of the club.
Then in comes Chris Chester, sacked just months after
leading Hull KR to the Challenge Cup Final for the first time in 29 years, and
immediately the Wildcats become one of the form teams of the competition
winning 7 out of the 8 Super League games they have played under Chester.
In his time at Hull KR he never oversaw a period of such
sustained positive league results. Rovers did not win a Super League game
outside of Hull last year and the team never looked like challenging for the
top 8 in his time in charge.
The Wildcats brilliant 25-24 win over the in-form Catalans
Dragons on Sunday, thanks to Jacob Miller’s monster drop goal, was a joy to
watch and don’t forget that they trailed 14-0 in the first half and looked like
being blown away by the Dragons.
However, they weathered the storm and Miller grew in
confidence and completely outplayed Todd Carney and they fully deserve to be in
6th place on the table with 8 wins from 15 games.
Chester has done all of this with the same squad that Smith
had and has been quick to tie up a number of star performers to long term
contracts in the short period of time that he has been there.
He seems more relaxed than he was at Hull KR and certainly
seems to be more confident and is enjoying the fruits of his labours as the
expected whipping boys are now looking to challenge for the top 4 places and
have an eminently winnable Challenge Cup quarter final tie at Huddersfield
Giants to look forward to.
Could Chris Chester be heading back to Wembley to lay some
of the many ghosts from 2015?
 |
| Unscathed - Terry Campese. |
Hull FC defeated local rivals Hull KR 28-16 in the final
match of the Magic Weekend to finish round 15 at the top of the table for the
first time in a generation – and don’t their fans let you know about it!!!
However, it is fully deserved as they are, without doubt,
the form team of the competition having won 9 out of 10 Super League matches
since their heavy defeat at Widnes back in March and are packed full of
talented individuals who are playing at the top of their form and with great
spirit and playing good quality rugby league.
I said many times at the start of the season that it was all
down to consistency for FC.
They started the season off well with wins over Salford and
Catalans and their fans were booking Grand Final tickets before defeats at home
to Castleford and Wigan and the hammering at Widnes had them cancelling their
hotel rooms, however a scrappy win over Wakefield Trinity and coming back from
20-0 down in the Good Friday Derby to win 22-20 has really given them
confidence and kicked their season on and they are very well placed to claim an
all-important top four spot and they also have a home tie in the Challenge Cup quarter
finals as well.
In an earlier column I called for the need to have a new
name on the Super League Trophy at the end of 2016 – only four teams have won
it since it’s inception back in 1998 – and the current Super League table see’s
a top 3 of FC, Warrington Wolves and Catalans Dragons with only Wigan Warriors
of the four previous Grand Final winners looking anything like making a title
challenge again.
Are FC good enough to sustain their challenge for a first
Grand Final triumph?
I think they are and I would not be surprised to see them
contesting a second Grand Final in October at Old Trafford.
For Hull KR, it will be a hard slog for the rest of the
season. They picked up more injuries against Hull, Mitch Allgood has been suspended for one match for making illegal contact with the referee and Josh Mantellato is our for a further 6 weeks as well due to the broken arm he suffered on Good Friday.
The only positive from the weekend was that Terry Campese came through 80 minutes of rugby unscathed for the first time in nearly 12 months.
They were sluggish in attack and struggled to break down a
well organised Hull defence – I can’t wait for this season to be over to be
honest.
 |
| Everybody's boss - Nigel Wood. |
The press release from Nigel Wood regarding
the attendance figures from the weekend was just like that: ‘’The Dacia Magic Weekend has been
an incredible success this year and once again Rugby League fans have turned
out in force, creating an incredible atmosphere and helping to make this one of
the most memorable weekends in the events history.
“Magic Weekend is a concept which is unique in British sport and the way
in which the fans, clubs, volunteers and staff all embrace the occasion helps
to make it a continued success. The stars of the event were, as always, the
players, who delivered some unforgettable moments across both days that I am
sure will live long in the memory of many fans.
“Results
across the weekend show that the First Utility Super League is both extremely
competitive and wide open this year, with just two points now separating
the top four clubs. It promises to be an incredible end to the season.
There are some valid points in that statement but the big
target for this year was for the attendance across both days to break the
70,000 barrier for the first time and after a first day attendance of 39,331 it
seemed that that would be done comfortably.
However, I was surprised that the second day attendance, which
included the Hull Derby as the culmination of the weekend, attracted nearly
10,500 fans less than the previous day – a total of 28,945 spectators giving
the weekend a total of 68,276 – still an all-time Magic Weekend record but an
increase of just 488 fans (0.72%) on last year’s event.
I realise that the fixtures on the Saturday had teams that
attract bigger away followings – the fans of Warrington, Castleford, Leeds and
Wigan always travel in decent numbers as against the fans of Wakefield,
Catalans and Huddersfield who tend to have smaller away followings but I was
still surprised that the total weekend attendance did not break 70,000 after
such a strong first day.
Spin it as positively as you want but I would be seriously
disappointed with the Sunday attendance and the RFL need to look at ways of
shifting more tickets or changing the fixture format and splitting the best
fixtures over both days.
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