SO, after a pre-season that has been dominated by the financial problems of Salford Red Devils, which were thankfully resolved last week, we are at last coming to the starting line this weekend for both Super League and the Championship.
And after some one-sided encounters in the third round of the Challenge Cup over the weekend, I’m hoping that we’ll see something different this week – close matches!
It begins on Thursday night at Wigan with the latest instalment of the Battle of the Borough, with the Leopards heading to The Brick Community Stadium seeking their first win against their neighbours since winning promotion to Super League two years ago.
It was interesting in last week’s League Express to see the odds quoted for Super League by the competition sponsor Betfred.
Wigan are the firm favourites to take out the title again at 6/4, but Leigh, after finishing in fifth place in 2024, are expected to drop out of the play-off places in 2025 and they are quoted at 20/1 for the title.
Given their achievements over the last couple of years, those odds seem quite generous to me, although I suspect that they are a reaction to the Leopards having lost some key players from last season in John Asiata, Kai O’Donnell, Tom Amone, Zak Hardaker, Ricky Leutele, Oliver Holmes and Matt Moylan.
It’s quite a challenge to replace those players. Leigh’s pre-season performances look promising but until the season starts the jury will be out on whether Adrian Lam has as much quality to play with as he had last year, although I’m particularly looking forward to seeing how David Armstrong performs at fullback. The former Newcastle Knights player, who was the understudy to Kalyn Ponga last season, is aged only 23 and could easily have found another NRL club. He is certainly one to watch in 2025.
On Friday night we have two games taking place simultaneously, both involving the Hull clubs, when Hull KR host Castleford and Catalans welcome Hull FC to the Stade Gilbert Brutus. The Robins’ clash against Castleford will be on Sky Sports Action, while the Catalans will feature on the Sky Sports+ red button.
On the face of it these two games should both result in comfortable home victories. The Robins have added some significant new signings to their squad, adding experience in key positions, which includes Rhyse Martin’s goalkicking prowess in a department that was one of the few weaknesses in their side last season.
The Tigers have had a testing pre-season culminating in a Challenge Cup defeat at Bradford on Sunday. It’s hard to see them competing on level terms in their opening match. The Robins look good value for their odds of 11/2 to win the Grand Final as quoted by Betfred.
The Catalans missed out on the play-offs last season and according to Betfred’s odds they should make up for that this season by finishing in sixth place, although I suspect that their owner Bernard Guasch will want something better than that and certainly better than their performance against Halifax on Saturday.
I think that Hull FC could be significant improvers in 2025 but I can’t see them starting the season with a win in France. The interesting thing about them will be to see whether some of the younger players who shored up the club last year can kick on this season. In the past the Hull club has often introduced promising new players but it has failed to nurture them. This year it has a fine crop of younger players, including Harvey Barron (21), Davy Litten (21), Lewis Martin (20), Logan Moy (19), Jack Charles (19), Denive Balmforth (21), Zach Jebson (20), Matty Laidlaw (21), Ryan Westerman (19) and the twins Callum and Lloyd Kemp (both 18).
Few other clubs have such a crop of potentially exciting young players, which is illustrated by the fact that they can allow an exciting and promising young prop forward like Nick Staveley leave the club to join Castleford.
I can foresee Hull FC having a very strong side primarily made up of those young players in another two years’ time if the club can develop them to realise their talent. I hope they can.
But in the meantime I can’t see them winning in Perpignan on Friday night.
On Saturday I’m sure that Wakefield Trinity will take a strong following to Headingley for their first game since their return to Super League.
They almost won there on Boxing Day in the Wetherby Whaler Challenge, going down 18-16 to a late try by young Leeds player George Brown, who certainly won’t be playing on Saturday afternoon.
Since then Leeds had a convincing pre-season win against Wigan and I’m expecting them to show some improvement this season after a full pre-season with Brad Arthur. Betfred are clearly expecting the Rhinos to get back into the play-off spots this season, making them the fifth favourites to win the Grand Final at 10/1.
That game kicks off at 3.00pm and will be shown on Sky Sports+ on the red button, as will the following game between St Helens and Salford, which kicks off at 5.30pm but which is also being shown on BBC 2, with the Challenge Cup fourth round draw due to be made at half-time.
Salford recently went to the Totally Wicked Stadium and inflicted a 40-12 defeat on St Helens in Morgan Knowles’ testimonial game. And now they can look forward to returning with their strongest side.
So let’s all hope that in front of the BBC cameras we are in for a thriller on Saturday afternoon. And with the game starting at 5.30pm, it will be interesting to see what the BBC audience will be for a game broadcast on its second channel.
Meanwhile the Championship kicks off on Saturday when Toulouse Olympique host Widnes Vikings at the Stade Ernest Wallon.
I’m expecting the Vikings, who finished fifth last season, to continue to make progress this year under their coach Allan Coleman but it’s less easy to predict the fortunes of Toulouse, who put out a squad with a lot of players who I wasn’t familiar with in their pre-season trip to Perpignan. It’s a shame that we will probably have no way of being able to see this game.
On Sunday we will have the final Round 1 Super League game when the Giants welcome Warrington to the John Smith’s Stadium.
Huddersfield coach Luke Robinson is already battling an extensive injury list and things could hardly have gone worse in the pre-season.
Expectations for Huddersfield are probably as low as they can be and the only good thing for their fans is that anything other than a surrender to the Wolves will be seen as a triumph.
And with Tom Burgess leading the Giants against the team coached by his brother, there must surely be plenty of motivation for the Huddersfield players, who avoided a potential banana skin on Sunday by winning at Hunslet in the Challenge Cup.
Five Championship matches are scheduled for Sunday and each of them looks to have something to offer the casual spectator.
The game I would most like to see is Oldham v York, with the promoted Roughyeds facing a stern challenge by one of the competition’s top teams. An Oldham win would certainly lay down a marker.
My second game would be Sheffield v Halifax, with Fax having held Catalans to a 14-point margin on Saturday and the Eagles having recruited well, not least in appointing Craig Lingard as their new coach.
The we have Bradford hosting demoted London Broncos, who are still hoping for new owners to be confirmed, Barrow facing promoted Hunslet and Featherstone, who also look strong this year, facing ambitious Doncaster. Any of those games should be worth seeing.
Let’s hope that they all get plenty of fans coming through the doors.
