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A Super View

Wigan Warriors are considered the team under the most amount of pressure to win in round three of the English Super League after getting off to the worst start to a season in 24-years last weekend.

Last Sunday’s shock 28-22 loss to Castleford did no favours for coach Brian Noble who had to endure chants of “you're getting sacked in the morning” from excited Castleford fans after the game.

There were some early signs in the contest that something interesting was on the cards in the form of two disallowed tries to the Tigers inside the opening 10 minutes.

Castleford halfback Brent Sherwin was a major architect of the upset, playing a role in each of his side’s five tries in his first appearance in Super League this year.

The loss will do nothing to stem gossip that Wallabies coach Eddie Jones is a favourite to replace Noble should he be axed.

The last Warriors coach to be sacked was Ian Millward who with two and half years left on his contract was shown the door after only one victory in eight matches back in 2006.

So will the same judgement be forthcoming should Noble find himself in a similar statistical situation to his predecessor?

Millward in a preview column this week reckons “there are a lot of issues in the team and there seems to be a lot of tension around the place.” That’s what happens at a club unable to flirt with the sort of quick success demanded of traditional powerhouses.

This will happen in the NRL too. Watch this space.

Not surprisingly the Canberra Raiders assistant coach believes the Harlequins are in with a mighty good chance of continuing the pain for Wigan. And why not?

They like Leeds, St Helens and Hull FC remain undefeated (unless you count their warm-up loss to Manly which I don’t) and if their warm-up loss to Manly did them any favours, it taught them how to score more points in a game.

My concern about London is they must not let a hungry Warriors outfit grab the opening try or it could be game on. If they can pressure them early, the opposition errors will start flowing and the Harlequins can then dominate other vitals such as field position and possession.


There are calls from Wigan fans for Noble to bring in a kid called Sam Tomkins who is credited for his passing, speed and vision.


IF the Warriors make the right selection changes and can provide more width and support play, who knows. Their fans might make less calls to their local therapist on Monday.

I think there won’t be a lot of points this in this game and whoever kicks better under pressure will determine the final outcome.

WIGAN V HARLEQUINS
Saturday Feb 28th
Twickenham Stoop Stadium
Referee: T Alibert
Kick-Off: 17:30
WIGAN: Mathers, Roberts, Carmont, Richards, Smith, Leuluai, Fielden, Riddell, Paleaaesina, Hock, Bailey, O'Loughlin, J. Tomkins, Coley, Hansen, Pryce, O'Carroll, S. Tomkins, Ainscough.
HARLEQUINS: Clubb, Dorn, Gafa, Gale, Golden, Heckenberg, Howell, Kaye, Mbu, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Melling, Orr, Purdham, Randall, Robinson, Sharp, Temata, Ward, Wells

CASTLEFORD V SALFORD
Saturday Feb 28th
The Jungle
Referee: G Hewer
Kick-Off: 6pm

Castleford will be raring to go after pulling off one of the biggest upsets of the season care of their 28-22 win over Wigan last Sunday.

The Reds have a couple of injury concerns. Coach McRae is bringing in teenage utility player Stefan Ratchford in place of forward Lee Jewitt while scrum-half Richie Myler could also be in doubt for an on-field appearance.

This one really could go either way because both squads are still searching for consistency though in the battle of the halves I give this one to the Tigers.

CASTLEFORD: Owen, Dixon, Shenton, Evans, Wainwright, Chase, Sherwin, Sargent, Hudson, Huby, Ferres, Westerman, Jones, Feather, Massey, Netherton, Faumina, McGoldrick, Widders

SALFORD: Fitzpatrick, Wilshere, Henry, Talau, Turner, Smith, Myler, Cashmere, Alker, Stapleton, Sibbit, Parker, Swain, Nash, Littler, Leuluai, Paul, Adamson, Ratchford

World Club Challenge
LEEDS V MANLY
Elland Road
Referee: Jason Robinson
Sunday March 1
KO: 8:00pm

If the pundits are right Manly could turn out to be the toughest opponent the Rhinos have come up against in 2009 so far.

When I logged onto TabSportsbet.com yesterday Manly were $1.70 favourites to win. I had to pinch myself at first but then I considered why the money had gone in favour of the men from Sydney’s northern beaches.

The Rhinos haven’t played a game which has literally gone down to the wire In Super League XIV and for the most part have been dominant in two of their first three games.

They remind me of Australia heading into the Rugby League World Cup final undefeated last year. They haven’t yet been truly tested and when they are they won’t know what has hit them or how to respond as effectively as they’d like.

Without Rob Burrow and Danny Buderus the Rhinos will give away the advantage of a good kicking game to the Sea Eagles who will have the services of the seriously talented Matt Orford to cause all sorts of mischief.

Where Orford might his kicking game disturbed is in dealing with the smaller in-goal areas. However Coach Hasler has spoken to former Super League coaches Daniel Anderson and Ian Millward and I’m pretty sure topics like this game up.

Hasler has perhaps done his homework on this game a bit more creatively then previous coaches and that’s why I sense the great World Club Challenge Wall is going to come crashing down on top of the Rhinos before a proud Australian audience.

English teams love to play the ball very quickly once tackled and that’s where the Sea Eagles need to get on top of them early in the contest. Frustrate the old strategies that have worked so well and make them ad-lip their game plan in certain respects.

This however will be Manly’s first serious-hit out since last year’s 40-0 win over Melbourne. There will be some rust amongst the players. How much they can afford to carry out onto the field against an undefeated team that is enjoying a stellar start to the season is the key question which will be answered.

Des Hasler would like us to believe his team are the underdogs. Good one, Des. That’s a real knee slapper.

MANLY: B Stewart; Robertson, Lyon, Matai, Williams; Bailey, Orford (capt); King, Ballin, Perry, Watmough, Hall, G Stewart. Subs (from): L'Estrange, Cuthbertson, Rose, Rodney, Waerea-Hargreaves. Coach: Des Hasler

LEEDS: Donald, Smith, Senior, Hall, McGuire, Burrow, Leuluai, Peacock, Jones-Buchanan, Lauitiiti, Sinfield (capt), Diskin, Bailey, Kirke, Ablett, Burgess, Gibson, Watkins, McShane. Coach: Brian McClennan

ROUND THREE SO FAR….

177 points was scored in total on Friday night amongst the four fixtures opening up round three of Super League with Hull KR rising to the occasion to topple St Helens 20-19.

The Rovers received plenty of practice at high-pressure footy in recent weeks and they finally got the hang of it.

Once again it was the accurate boot of Micheal Dobson and his love of field goals which helped the Rovers score their first win of the season over the Saints.

Wakefield 48 Warrington 22
Hull KR 20 St Helens 19
Hull FC 28 Les Catalans 12
Huddersfield 16 Bradford 12
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