Round 15 – Friday 27th May 2011.

St Helens v Crusaders RL;

Venue: Stobart Stadium Halton (Widnes)

KO: 20:00

Referee: B Thaler

Teams:

St Helens (17 from): Wellens, Gardner, Shenton, Soliola, Meli, Eastmond, Perry, Roby, Graham, Wilkin, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Ashurst, Dixon, Lomax, Magennis, Foster, Gaskell, Makinson, Hale

Crusaders RL (17 from): Schifcofske, Mellars, Reardon, Witt, Sammut, O'Hara, Withers, Bryant, Cahill, Chan, Winternstein, James, Flower, Hanbury, Kear, White, Moore, Lupton, Tansey

Five first teamers are set to return to Saints’ side for this match. Presumably we can stop complaining about the injuries now seeing as their injury list isn’t that bad anymore? Ah, no, I thought not. I’ll refrain from the Scouse jokes. Those five players are Kyle Eastmond, Josh Perry, Andrew Dixon, Jonny Lomax and Lee Gaskell.

Crusaders didn’t play last weekend as they were knocked out of the Challenge Cup in the 4^th round. You can take that as a positive or a negative. Positive being; they could rest up and have a break after 15 matches or the negative loss of momentum, maybe it would be better playing every week? I’d say it was a positive, let’s face it; Crusaders don’t really have much form to lose (or build on!) anyway. They will be without Gareth Thomas for the next couple of weeks as he has a neck injury but Lincoln Withers and Jason Chan should return.

St Helens’ thrashed Featherstone 70-0 last weekend so they didn’t really have a “game” so to speak, although I am told that Fev held their own for sometime in the first half.  I expect St Helens to win.

Leeds Rhinos v Warrington Wolves;

Venue: Headingley Carnegie Stadium, Leeds

KO: 20:00

Referee: J Child (VR- R Silverwood)

Sky Sports 2

Teams;

Leeds (17 from): Webb, Smith, Delaney, Hall, McGuire, Burrow, Leuluai, Buderus, Peacock, Jones-Buchanan, Ablett, Sinfield, Lauitiiti, Bailey, Kirke, Hauraki, Pitts, McShane, Hardaker

Warrington (17 from): Atkins, Blythe, Bridge, Briers, Carvell, Clarke, Cooper, Grix, Higham, Hodgson, King, J. Monaghan, M. Monaghan, Morley, Myler, Solomona, Westwood, Williams, Wood

Well, what a match we have in prospect! I hope it lives up to all of our expectations. 

Warrington are on fire at the moment, scoring 50+ points is simply the norm for them, especially in recent weeks. I’d hate to burst Warrington’s bubble, and no disrespect to the teams they have beaten, but they haven’t really played any amazing teams over the past few weeks have they? (This isn’t a dig by the way, many of you will know that I have a soft spot for Wire) I doubt tomorrow’s game is going to be a walkover for either side.

There’s been some big positives injury wise for both sides this week. Brett Hodgson and Richie Myler are set to return for Warrington in this match. Hodgson got injured two weeks ago with a back spasm and missed last week’s Challenge Cup game as a precaution, whereas Myler has been out since Good Friday with a fractured cheek bone. However, Gareth O’Brien, who has played in Myler’s absence, was injured against Swinton last week and is thought to be out for the rest of the season.

Leeds should welcome back Brent Webb and Danny McGuire for this match. Both of whom were injured in the Challenge Cup 4^th round match against Crusaders three weeks ago.

I’m going to go for Leeds in this match. Simply because they have good form at the minute, obviously Warrington have too, but closer matches often help how you play as a team. It’s going to be a brilliant game and I simply cannot wait!