The Yorkshire Post’s rugby league writer, James O’Brien, looks ahead to the latest round of Super League fixtures, including Castleford Tigers v Wigan Warriors, Hull Kingston Rovers v Huddersfield Giants and Hull FC v Leeds Rhinos ...
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00:00It's back to Super League this weekend. I've got a couple of Yorkshire derbies to look
00:09forward to. Hulkiara against Huddersfield first up Friday night. Hulkiara are very strong
00:14at Craven Park. They've only lost to Warrington Wolves there this season. They've beaten Wigan,
00:19St Helens, the top sides that everyone else are chasing. So they're very confident at
00:24home. They're playing Huddersfield's side who got back to winning ways in unconvincing
00:28fashion before the break. They beat Hull FC at home narrowly. But they have struggled
00:33against sides in the top half of the league that beat Catalan in the cup away from home.
00:38That was a real shock result. Aside from that, they have struggled. So you'd fancy Hulkiara
00:44in that. Huddersfield, if they are going to make a charge for the playoffs, they need
00:48to move soon. You'd say they've got a tough run of fixtures coming up. They need to come
00:51out of that in credit. But even then, they'll be struggling based on what we've seen in
00:57the first half of the season. Elsewhere on Friday night, you've got Cass hosting Wigan.
01:02It feels like the 15th meeting between the sides this season. That's just how the Super
01:07League fixture schedule seems to go. Cass have had some real beatings against Wigan
01:14this season, none more so than in the Challenger Cup. So it's a big ask, but they have had
01:20the week off. That should help them, given Wigan were celebrating well into the weekend.
01:28So we'll see if they've got any kind of hangover. But they're a professional outfit. They've
01:32got quite a lot of depth in the squad, particularly in the forwards. So you'd expect Wigan to
01:36win that. But it is a chance for a fresh Cass side to put down a bit of a marker and show
01:41that they won't roll over against these top sides, as they have done at home already this
01:45season.
01:46OK, again, another meeting. Hull against Leeds. We've been here before. We've done this before
01:52at the end of April. That was actually Hull's last home game. A lot of emotion around Rob
01:59Brewer. It's Leeds' first game since his devastating passing. So Leeds will be highly motivated
02:04in that to get a result for Hull. They've got motivations of their own. They've lost
02:09the last 11 games. They're in dire form. They're in danger of getting a wooden spoon. So they
02:14desperately need to win them as well. So it could be another tense meeting between
02:17those sides. But yeah, good to have Super League back and we'll see how the weekend pans out.