Super League Round 2 Recap

Round 2 was a game short of a full round with Wigan down under losing to the Roosters in the World Club Challenge, but there were still a number of top match ups.

More on the Thursday night's game below, but the two biggest match ups came on the Friday, with four 2013 play off sides meeting each other.

Sky's live game was Leeds v Warrington. We saw an improvement from the Wire on their first round effort. There is still a question over the kicking game and they had a lot of ball in the 2nd half in good attacking territory so the creativity in the team without Briers may still be a concern. On the flip side, Leeds goal defence was outstanding and Zak Hardaker had a very impressive game in attack and defence. Leeds were the better side and deserved the win.

The other big game was an emotional affair as Steve Prescott was remembered when his two former teams St Helens and Hull FC met. A tight first half and a point a minute second half gave Saints a +12 in the race for the inaugural Steve Prescott Cup the sides will play for each year to remember the  inspirational fundraising hero that wore both club's colours with distinction. Saints fan and friend of the podcast (not an oxymoron) Andy Smith was there for the game - here his thought on the night's emotion on this week's show. Not for the first time in Langtree Park history, James Roby was a star man - leading his team in tackles, carries and tries, the second of went a long way towards sealing the win.

Round 2 results and tweets

Home			Away			Attendance
Wakefield	10	(4)	Bradford	23	(10)	4049
Leeds	18	(12)	Warrington	12	(6)	16164
St Helens	34	(6)	Hull FC	22	(10)	13448
London	18	(6)	Salford	44	(26)	1246
Huddersfield	24	(24)	Hull KR	24	(6)	7180
Castleford	32	(12)	Catalan	6	(6)	5104
					Average attendance	7865

Wakefield v Bradford
Dean Williams, Wakefield fan (@deanofthenorth): Bulls better defence earn win in scrappy match riddled with errors. Inconsistency from players and officials. #forgettablerl
Alan Cale, Bradford fan (@shoddynmungo): scrappy but Bulls fought hard, Disko and Gale played better behind a good pack performance. Adjusted well to losing Gaskell

Leeds v Warrington

Steve, Warrington fan (@wildywotsits): better performance this week. Second half particularly. Great effort from the new boys and the half back combo much better.
Martin Ramshaw, Warrington fan (@martinramshaw): Was always a tough one for Wire. Encouraging signs but fear it may be too late by the time we get our season up and running

Huddersfield v Hull KR

Marie Wright, Huddersfield fan (Wychwoodlady): Poor 2nd half from Giants, plenty of opportunity that we didn't turn into points.
Joseph Ward (@johjohn114859): Giants far too casual HKR never say die spirit  deserved their draw great kick by Burns  under pressure . Respect opposition

Observations and star performers

Its appropriate this week to start this section with two outstanding defensive efforts. Jamie Peacock, 36 years old, completed 54 successful tackles on Friday night against Warrington - his inspirational efforts are still setting standards despite his senior status. Tommy Lee went even better, with 57 tackles for Salford at old club London in an 80 minute display than he isn't necessarily renowned for. A count of 57 tackles was only bettered three times in the entire 2013 regular season, that should signal just what a special effort Lee, and Peacock, put in. The other defensive effort we want to applaud was young Danny Bridge - 36 tackles, no misses. 

Justin Carney deserves special praise as the only man to get a try hat trick this week. He also totted up a massive 197m on 22 carries. However he was outperformed in the metres gained by Jake Mullaney of Salford, who got 198m on 17 carries as he constantly knifed through the London defence. 2 tries and 1 try assist, 8 table busts and 147m as well, means Zak Hardaker had a noteworthy Friday night in front of the Sky cameras. 14m per carry for both Tom Briscoe and Kris Welham led the week for this particular figure.

All those singled out for attack above are exciting backs, but a special mention is deserved for a forward too - Alex Walmsley led the way for tackle busts with 10 in his 168m. Ben Westwood led forwards in metres gained with 184m in his try scoring exertion at Leeds. Gareth Hock deserves a mention too as week 2 leading offloader with 6.

Not everyone had a round to remember off course. Danny Kirmond had a rare poor day with 8 missed tackles against Bradford and to be frank he didn't look fully up to speed on Thursday night. Scott Moore of London and Ben Pomeroy of Catalan joined him on this figure, showing missing tackles in such numbers is likely to mean a loss for your team. Lots of players had 3 errors but Ryan Atkins had the distinction of leading this category with 4.

Unfortunately after pondering last week if this could become the year of the 40-20, there was only one in round 2, kicked by Tony Gigot in a losing effort down at the hive.

Last week we talked about the incidence of dirty play and all the calls from the TV commentators for cards to be shown. This week, we've started to see the cards coming. 

Many won't be surprised that Gareth Hock was the first to see a card, seeing yellow and a 10 minute cool down just after half time at London. We talk more about it in the show, but basically he felt wronged by an apparently accidental poke in the eye and decided to take retribution at his next chance. Sin bin sufficient for us but needless action by Hock who never seems to learn. The yellow cards flowed at Huddersfield and Castleford too as first fights were the order of the day. It was 11 v 12 at one point at John Smith's Stadium.

As well as cards, we've seen some bans handed out again, Catalan being the major recipient with Julien Bousquet being the second Dragon to get a 4 match ban for dangerous contract already this season after Oliver Elima got the same from round 1. Eddy Pettybourne and Dean Collis took 1 match early guilty pleas and Justin Poore got a 1 match ban for his part in the Huddersfield brawl.

Feature game - Wakefield v Bradford

Tom had a great trip to Wakefield, one of those rare good days to be a Bulls fan in recent times. 

As for the trip as a whole, we enjoyed it. Neither of us had been to Wakefield for a good few years, not that the place has changed much. We arrived about three quarters of an hour before the kick off time. Free on road parking very close to the ground was easy to find, which was a bonus - we got in and out faster than we had at the shinier newer Salford Stadium.

There isn't so much outside or assertions the ground but another thing we preferred at Belle Vue were the refreshment stands in the ground. They were well stocked and reasonably priced. 

The pre-game 'entertainment' was just a string of young dance troupes that the club announcers seemed very proud of, but not much to inspire the crowd. It gave time to browse the reasonably priced match programme, which at £2.50 had a lot to read with plenty of general rugby league content rather than just specific Wakefield content.

On the field the game was largely a poor affair. The ground looked very heavy and two sides with plenty of issues and little pace were never going to serve up a classic game of attacking rugby, particularly on a short turnaround. Sloppiness and plenty of errors made this a game a poor watch but because of what is at stake this year there was still tension, which does help create some sporting drama in what was mostly a subdued atmosphere.

Although the game was littered with dropped ball and missed tackles, there was the occasional flash of quality - Brett Kearney's catch and spin for his try, Dean Collis' excellent offload for Peter Fox to break clear and Adam O'Brien's quick play out of dummy half to grab his try and help seal the game were bright moments of quality.

Manese Manuokafoa impressed us both throughout with some very strong running making him the Bulls top metre maker whilst others like Sidlow and debutant Mullally did some tough work too. Matt Diskin got Sky man of the match but we were most impressed with Luke Gale who organised the team around and was very active in attack and defence. He looks to have copied with loss of last year's partner Jarrod Sammut by relishing in the extra responsibility of being a real team leader and is one Bradford player who deserves real credit so far in 2014.

Gale's drop goal finished the scoring and the small group of Bradford fans in the crowd were able to smile for a brief time until the whole ownership issue unravelled again following the hefty points deduction this week.

We left with a happy Tom and gambled a bit on the petrol, just reaching the Tesco at the end of the M55 in time. We talk about all this and some more in Episode 6 of Super League Pod.

Super League Round 1 Recap

With the Wigan-Huddersfield game being played a week ahead we got the bonus of three live televised Super League games in Round 1 - a special treat for the fans after an off-season of political discontent and called off trial games.


In the live games we saw two hotly tipped sides get off to impressive starts with away wins at title rivals. We also saw two teams that many think will be involved in the bottom end of the race for the eight play in what turned out to be an exciting try-fest.

We also had fixtures contrived in such away that the top eight sides of 2013 played another top eight side, the bottom ranked sided from last year also going against each other - a clever way to get the ball rolling on a new season!

Round 1 results

Home		Away		Attendance
Wigan	8	Huddersfield	24	16240
Warrington	8	St Helens	38	13157
Hull FC	36	Catalan	34	11400
Widnes	64	London	10	5327
Bradford	18	Castleford	36	8214
Hull KR	6	Leeds	34	11526
Salford	18	Wakefield	14	7102
Average attendance				10424

Round 1 observations
The first thing to say is the crowds were good, up on the same time last year. Wigan-Huddersfield set the tone and the first weekly round saw average crowds of over 10,000. First rounds are often well attended but this time round we saw a Salford club stadium record was inside the AJ Bell Stadium and a new record crowd at Hull KR, very encouraging for the year ahead. Four games had five-figure crowds, including all the three TV games. TV rating were also reportedly encouraging, being up on the respective opening fixtures last year.

As well as positive crowds, a feature in the three TV games was serious foul play, with each game having a legitimate case for a red card being shown. Matt Bowen was adjudged to have hit the shoulder first on Scott Grix and so is free to play in the World Club Challenge. Many suggested that a lesser next game might have seen him get a more sever punishment - we don't think he could have argued against it.

Then in the Wire-Saints game Sia Soliola had a crack at taking Michael Monaghan's head off and the crowd (and Sky commentators) were calling for red. Again, the disciplinary said penalty sufficient, first contact apparently on the chest and the opponent dipped in. At least Saints fans can't moan about the Bowen decision any more.

Oliver Elima hasn't got off so lightly for his blatant and dangerous twist on Aaron Heremaia's leg. Grade D, 3-5 match ban coming his way. Catalan may feel they get then rough end of the stick with the disciplinary but this surely is deserved. Michael Weyman was charged for a similar offence for Hull KR on Sunday, his being classed as a Grade C, 2-3 game ban potentially awaits.

Another common theme across the TV games was 40-20s - the winning team kicked one in all three games and Widnes got one too in their big win. Four 40-20s in a round is a fairly high number and its a big momentum turner in a league with increasingly fast and strong defensive attributes. Could 2014 be the year of the 40-20? We'll see.

Whilst positional kicking was good, goal kicking wasn't so great. Across the league kicking was below 62%. Over a third of conversion attempts were missed. Even the best weren't immune, Kevin Sinfield missed more than he kicked for Leeds, same for Danny Brough.

Star performers
Four men got try hat-tricks in Round 1 - Jermaine McGillvary (Huddersfield), Damien Cardace (Catalan), Kevin Brown (Widnes) and Tom Briscoe (Leeds). Brown also had four try assists in his side's big win over London.

Tommy Makinson for St Helens was the biggest metre maker, taking over 200m on his 18 carries. You expect outside backs to get good metres with kick returns in their favour, but special mention goes to Andy Lynch and Zeb Taia as the best ground gaining forwards with 156m each.

Jordan Thompson on debut for Hull FC was the best average gainer, 18m per carry but only two carries. Another underused good gainer in the same game was Eloi Pelissier, who only had two carries but for 25m. The best gainer, given that he had more than a few carries, goes to Tom Briscoe, the try line only stopping him extending his 12m per carry average on his way to 152m total.

Gareth Hock was a handful against Wakefield, some monster hand offs on the way to a round leading nine tackle busts. In response to those efforts, Wakefield bench prop Taulima Tautai was the top offloader, with six successful offloads helping his team come back in that game to leave it close at the end. In fact, all the top offloaders in the league came in that game for Round 1, Ali Lauititi, Matt Ryan and Greg Johnson all getting four away.

Defensively, eight players had over 40 tackles, which is a real big effort. A special mention goes to Alex Foster of London who despite suffering a big defeat had 42 tackles without missing one. Lynch, Tautai, Eorl Crabtree, Liam Farrell, Matt Diskin, Hep Cahill and, possibly most impressive given his physical size and natural half back role, Sam Powell were all player with over 30 tackles and no misses. Foster and Farrell worked overtime with double figures of marker tackles too. Some impressive numbers for sure.

On the less impressive side of things, Warrington's Ben Westwood had five individual errors that contributed to his side not being able to get their attack going. Hull FC's Richard Horne was the most penalised player with three against his name, but his side came good despite this.

Feature game - Salford Red Devils v Wakefield Trinity Wildcats
Part of our plan this year is to get to as many different grounds as possible around Super League and the rest of Rugby League. First up, we thought we would take in the opening game of the Red Devilution as neutral observers. As it turns out, we weren't the only ones, but more on that later...

A slight detour on the way to the ground because J11 was closed anti-clockwise on the M60 didn't knock us out of our stride and we arrived plenty early to sample the atmosphere around the ground. Getting on to the car park (reasonable at £5.00) was much more of a breeze than getting off it - it wasn't so much the time taken as the free-for-all nature of the traffic streams in getting off that caused us concern!

Anyway, we got there and swiftly met with the guys from Salford fan podcast Devil in the Detail. Nice guys and they set the tone that we picked up from most of the Salford fans we spoke with - a balance between nerves and excitement, that expectation that they were in for a fall at some point, that this type of thing doesn't happen to Salford, not anymore at least.

It might have been the sunshine, it might have been the start of the season, it might have been that they hadn't really seen their team play yet, but there definitely was a good feeling outside the fans bar. Lots of people were milling about and fire breathers were entertaining them as they passed. Patrick and Robert assured us that this wasn't normal, that this day did feel special and was the start of something. They said a good crowd and a win were all they were looking for at this stage and thought they could build on that as a starting point.

In to the stadium then, we took our seats quite early to see the exciting entrance of the red devil parachute team. Just after they touched down and Dr Koukash greeted them with a handshake, the ground started to fill up nicely, particularly in the terraced ends - the Wildcats had a good vocal support after a tricky off-season too. As the ground filled up, the seat next to us was filled by a man in a flat cap, who we took little notice of despite having to stand up for him to pass. It took about five minutes for us to look back that way and realise we were sat next to the legend that is Brian Carney! We got a picture, but he had his eyes closed, so it didn't make the gallery below. He was later joined by Rodd Studd, after his interview duties were finished. The pair were very friendly and willing to chat at half time despite, or maybe because of, the abuse Rodd was getting for his suggestion last year that Salford should pick up the Manchester name to get wider appeal. It was a bonus feature of what was already shaping up to be an enjoyable trip.

On the field, it was a game of two halves! Salford started with some physical stuff, Lami Tasi and Gareth Hock particularly impressing carrying the ball and the Salford defence was strong and intense, unsurprisingly Harrison Hanson led the way. In attack we felt they were a little disjointed, though that wasn't such a shock with the whole starting line up consisting of new signings.

Scoring was started by Rangi Chase stabbed a grubber in that Junior Sa'u acted quickest to, palming back for Gareth Hock to touch down. It appeared that the Wakefield defence should have reacted better to the kick, but they didn't - Mullaney converted for 6-0. Shortly after, following some threatening raids at the Salford left edge, Wakefield broke and in trying to shut it down, Chase tumbled, tripped the attacking runner but saw his game ended with a leg injury. Hobbling past the abuse of the away fans didn't look so fun for him.

The rest of the first half play ran through Tim Smith, which sort of helped the Salford structures as their attack now had one focal point to work from. Smith finally timed one of his passes right and that saw Hansen crash through the defence and reach out to ground the ball over the goal line. Another Smith pass, this time a delayed short ball, sent substitute Andrew Dixon over. A kick that we thought missed was good and it was 18-0 at half time. Things were going to plan for the home side, the Wakefield fan sat up behind us asked Carney if he thought Wakefield or Bradford would go down with London, Carney avoided the question with class just suggesting it'll be an exciting season to watch.

We wondered if Salford's defensive intensity could be maintained, but we didn't really think Wakefield could threaten enough. However, Richard Agar really must have got his team going in the dressing rooms as they came out playing at a whole new speed, all starting with Paul McShane out of dummy half and Pita Godinet starting to click. Godinet set up a try for Matt Ryan and then read the slow play out of dummy half to jump on a Stu Howarth pass and take it for a try. Off the back of that, Ali Lauititi started to threaten near the Salford line. He had one try ruled held up but not long after he got the ball down despite three defenders trying to stop him. Unfortunately for Wakefield, only one try was converted and Salford figured out the way to play they game to nervously close out the last quarter, despite Reece Lyne coming very close to taking in a high pass but ultimately falling short.

Smith got the sponsors man of the match. The home fans we spoke to before heading for the car seemed to be most impressed with Hock - he did do some serious damage on a few runs, possibly more damage than Dean Collis should have played on with on one occasion late in the first half. We were also impressed with the performance put in by Greg Johnson who really looked the part back in Super League.

Listen to us discuss all this and more in Episode 5 of Super League Pod.

Round 2 - Wakefield v Bradford Preview

Two of the favourites for the drop face off on Thursday Night Super League this week, so it could be an early season four pointer.

On previous episodes of Super League Pod bad news stories from both Wakefield and Bradford have been a common occurrence in our news round ups.

One interesting sideline to the game is the recent release of Jarrod Summut to join the Wildcats from the Bulls. Tom isn't too disappointed - he thinks his Bulls need solid, consistent and determined players who will work hard in defence as well as attack. In short, he isn't bothered Sammut has gone.

On the flip side, Wakefield needed attacking flair with Tim Smith gone and fans criticising the pedestrian nature of the half back combos they've had play in the trial games. Now with Sammut and Godinet, they should be able to complement the grit and determination that Richard Agar has instilled in his team in the past with a bit of skill.

Last season


Bradford had the better of things in the Super League meetings last term. The Round 1 win was as dominant as they would be all year in terms of metres gained and was the game that they saw the most possession of the ball over the course of the season. It didn't matter on this occasion that the Bulls tackling was woeful because they hardly had to do any of it. The attacking kicks numbers suggest most of the game was played close to the Wakefield sticks, but it isn't hard to understand why. High numbers of errors and penalties by Wakefield gave Bradford plenty of opportunities with ball in hand. Bradford were making so much ground with a very high 24 successful offloads putting Wakefield on the back foot and making them work even harder.

The reverse meeting was a closer affair on the scoreboard and Wakefield had much more of the ball than the first encounter. Most of the numbers that were skewed in favour of the Bulls in Round 1 were much more even in Round 23. In the end, the big difference was the missed tackles by Wakefield - their defence wasn't strong enough and it allowed Bradford to outscore them...just!

Form guide

Both sides had some disappointing trial games that give us a clue that these clubs will, as was already expected, struggle in 2014 and be in or around the relegation zone before restructure.

Bradford fans would say not to read too much into the Dewsbury game as it was a very young side that ran out there, but the Castleford trial game was an ominous scoreline. Things weren't quite so bad in the repeat fixture for Round 1, but Bradford still lost and that will put extra pressure on them for this big clash. By all accounts it was a lack of concentration and execution in the second half that saw Castleford take control and Bradford run out of steam.

Wakefield may also say not too much should be read into the trial games, as they didn't have any of their new signings yet. Something can be read in to their season opener though, which really they only lost from poorer goal kicking on the day, and Ali Lauititi was convinced he should have had another try but we were too far away to judge. What we did see is Reece Lyne drop a great chance to score near the end. Wakefield showed flashes of threat in the first half and controlled the second half against Salford. They looked further ahead of where we expected them to be with a quarter of their squad only just getting on board, but debutants Pita Godinet and Matt Ryan imposed themselves on the team and grabbed tries, with Paul McShane also very impressive.

Wakefield certainly played the full 80 minutes and its something Bradford will have to match them on if they are to take anything away from this early season relegation four pointer. It should be tense and enjoyable for the restricted attendance that will be in town. If you're going to the game, we'll see you there!

Other games in Round 2
21/02/2014 20:00 Leeds v Warrington *live on Sky Sports
21/02/2014 20:00 St Helens v Hull FC
22/02/2014 15:00 London v Salford
23/02/2014 15:00 Huddersfield v Hull KR
23/02/2014 15:30 Castleford v Catalan
TBA Wigan v Widnes *re-arranged due to Wigan playing in WCC, live on Sky Sports 22/02/2014 09:30

Listen to our predictions on Episode 5 of Super League Pod.

Thursday games
We saw a few Thursday night games at the end of the 2013 Super League season and they've been brought in as a more regular feature in 2014.

Despite them being played for a number of seasons in the Championships, bringing them to Super League has brought a whole lot of discussion from fans.

Mark thinks they should be a good thing for the sport commercially, as TV coverage is significant for club revenues if the sport is to progress and this will give the game exposure with less direct opposition from football, six nations rugby or prime television than Saturday evening games give us. The only real drawback he sees is it started the marginalisation of the Championships that resulted in that competition getting no live TV coverage in 2013 sadly. The moans of fans not being able to get to games is a less significant factor for Mark, its no different to a Friday night game for post-work travel issues and away followings aren't huge all across Super League anyway. Also, many of the announced Thursday night games are local affairs, and others have been announced long enough in advance that people can book their holidays appropriately if they feel they can't miss a game live. Maybe, it might have an impact on the amount of young kids that will be able to go to these games, but then again, its only one game a week and a couple of games each team.

We put the question of Thursday night games out on Twitter and here are some of the opinions you gave:

Ady Heaton ‏@wiganadheaton: Good for sky only.

Andy Barden ‏@Electric_gig: Good for the Sky Sports viewer, if its a big fixture. Also easier to watch then weekend afternoon games. You try watching afternoon games with Wife and Kids.

Paul ‏@mozza_Leeds: I personally think Thursday and Monday games are good. The only stipulation is that they should be derby games only. Cross Pennines games and London/France home games are not fair on the core fans, SL seem to forget about core fans.

Alan Cale ‏@shoddynmungo: Gives us a clear chance to showcase the game with little competition from other sports, let's see how attendances hold up

Martin Ramshaw ‏@martinramshaw: They're more conducive to a happy marriage than Friday nights!

andrew ‏@nuttyboyzok: Rubbish and stupid idea worse than Monday night games. The atmosphere is usually flat as not many away fans make it especially from Yorkshire

Listen out for us discussing all this and much more on Episode 5 of Super League Pod.