With the important parts of regular Super League season now completed the 8 teams making up the 2010 Super League Play Offs have been decided and attention turns to the exciting line up of games ahead.
For those unaware of the new system now in place for the Super League play-offs below is an excerpt from the Super League website which tries to explain the exciting, but somewhat complicated system:
“The engage Super League play-offs will see all eight teams involved in the four matches which take place in the opening week. The League Leaders will face the fourth place team, second will play third, fifth will play eighth and sixth will face seventh. The two matches involving the top four teams will be known as Qualifying Play-Offs and the winners of these games will progress directly to the third week of the series. The losers in these two games will have another chance in the second week when they face the winners of the week one Elimination Play-Offs which involve the other four teams (the losers of these games will clearly take no further part).
In week three, the winners of the two Qualifying Play-Offs will play the winners from week two. Significantly, the winning team from week one with the highest League placing will be allowed to select their opponents at this stage, thus adding a further element to this phase of the competition.”
Having taken all that on board it is necessary to look deeper into the fixtures that will take place in the opening weekend of the play-offs.
Wigan Finish Top After 27 Rounds
After 27 games the Wigan Warriors have claimed the league leader’s shield, finishing 4 points ahead of St Helens and Challenge Cup winners Warrington. The Saints claim second on points difference, after a simply incredible last game of the season against Castleford Tigers earning themselves home advantage against the Warrington Wolves. After seemingly having thrown away a lead sufficient to claim second, Kieron Cunningham, on his last league appearance for Saints, went over for a try in the very last seconds of the game to clinch the all important second place. Wigan will host Leeds Rhinos at the DW stadium to make up the two games of the Qualifying Playoffs.
Huddersfield claimed 5th place, closely followed by Hull FC and Hull KR in 6th and 7th respectively. Crusaders held off Castleford Tigers to claim the precious last place, despite a more than heroic effort from the Tigers in their last game at St Helens which saw them nearly turn around a massive deficit.
As a result the Elimination Playoffs will feature a Hull derby as Hull FC take on city rivals Hull Kingston Rovers at the KC Stadium. Huddersfield will welcome Crusaders to the Galpharm stadium. The winners of these two games will go through to play the losers of the qualifying play-offs.
The schedule for the opening weekend is as follow:
Friday 10th September – 6.30pm St Helens Vs Warrington
Saturday 11th September – 3.30pm Huddersfield Vs Crusaders immediately followed by Hull FC Vs Hull KR
Sunday 12th September – 6.30pm Wigan Vs Leeds
Warrington Wolves Aiming For League And Cup Double
Warrington Wolves are aiming for the double this season after beating the Leeds Rhinos 30-6 at Wembley in the Challenge Cup final claiming the honour for the second season running. The Wolves have not had the same level of success in Super League, with this 3rd place finish representing their best ever Super League finish, beating their previous best of 4th in 2005.
The plays-offs always offer an unprecedented level of excitement, tension, jubilation and heartbreak but only 2 teams can reach the Grand Final on October 2nd at Old Trafford and ultimately only 1 team will be crowned Super League Champions 2010.
With this level of temptation it’s impossible to resist a little prediction: This is how this writer thinks it will pan out.
Fixture
QPO1 Wigan Vs Leeds
Wigan
QPO2 St Helens Vs Warrington
St Helens
EPO1 Huddersfield Vs Crusaders
Huddersfield
EPO2 Hull FC Vs Hull KR
Hull FC
PSF1 Leeds Vs Huddersfield
Huddersfield
PSF2 Warrington Vs Hull FC
Warrington
QSF1 Wigan Vs Huddersfield
Wigan
QSF2 St Helens Vs Warrington
Warrington
Grand Final
Wigan Vs Warrington
Super League winners: Wigan
An Explosive Month Ahead
What ever way the Super League playoffs play out, they are sure to be explosive fixtures and hard hitting action. If The Grand Final is to be Wigan Warriors Vs Warrington Wolves then a look back at the league season fixtures offers no clues as to who are favourites. In February Wigan won 22-20 at the Halliwell Jones Stadium whilst Warrington returned the compliment beating Wigan 22-20 on their own turf at the DW Stadium back in July. On neutral territory in the Grand Final it has the potential to be one of the greatest Super League Grand finals ever.
But that is getting ahead of ourselves a bit. There a six other teams who will want to have their say before that. Can Leeds upset the odds and retain their crown? Or will someone like Huddersfield, who concede very few points, come through to surprise everyone. Anything is possible and you don’t want to miss a second of it.
Mark Barber - Mark is a Graduate of Media and Print Journalism of the University of Huddersfield. He currently works as a Greenkeeper at Thorpeness Golf ...
