Dragons favourites to open Magic with a win

Magic Weekend comes to Liverpool on Saturday and Catalans are 1st up as they take on Wakefield .

Like most sides this year these 2 have been very inconsistent but the Dragons are now on a run of 4 wins from 5 as the bookies make them 8/11 to win this , with Wakefield around 6/5 .

Trinity were very poor in losing to London last time out , the 2nd time they’ve lost in the Capital , but could be value at around 13/10 for the win in what could be a very close encounter , 6 of Wakefield’s last 7 games have been won by 10 points or less with less than a score in 4 of them . This should be an entertaining opener that could go either way , but I think Trinity can nick it by 1-5 points .

The halves usually do well in the man of the match market for magic weekend  with Smith and Miller 10/1 joint favourites . This could be a bit of a forwards tussle though and my man in Trinity colours would have to be Fifita at 12/1 ,as for the French I like Kenny Edwards at 20/1 .

2nd game up sees Hull take on Huddersfield . The Giants have again recovered from a poor start to the season ,he black and whites are understandable favourites given their 4th position in Super League , 6 points ahead of the Giants .
This though is a different side to the one beaten comprehensively by Hull earlier in the season .

For a 2nd season in a row Huddersfield have improved dramatically after a bad start, but recent form suggests Lee Radford’a side will be too strong . Their last 2 games have seen wins against Warrington and Castleford and I can see them making it 3 in a row .

Hull are worthy favourites at 2/5 and can win this by around 11-15 points , they concede an 8 point start on the handicap . Be wary though as the Giants have a very good record at magic weekend , a win will take them above Wigan on top of the overall magic weekend points table . If you fancy the Giants to keep up their good magic record they are around 2/1 to win here .

Connor is the star turn on the field here and he’s my pick at 7/1 for man of the match over 9/1 Albert Kelly . As for Huddersfield Kruise Leeming looks big at 20/1 .

Final game on day one sees Champions Wigan take on Warrington.

This will be the 3rd time this season these 2 have met with Warrington winning both . They met in the cup 2 weeks ago which is a good form guide in a one off game , Wire winning a very close encounter .
Wigan are improving after a slow start to the season but were abject in being beaten at the Nou Camp by Catalans 7 days ago .
The Wolves also last week , against Hull , but had won their previous 4 games before that in League and Cup and should win here despite Wigan’s impressive record at magic weekend.

Wigan haven’t lost a magic fixture this decade , but did draw with Warrington 2 years ago , before comprehensively beating them 12 months ago . It’s around 1/2 for the Wire , with Wigan too short at 7/4 given their lowly league position . The handicap line of around 6 is about right , I fancy Wire to nick this by around 6-10 points .

As for man of the match Blake Austin is hard to ignore at 5/1 , but 11/1 is too big for Daryl Clark so it’d be Clark and George Williams at 9/1 in Cherry and White for me .

We’ll have a look at day 2 tomorrow , as always please gamble responsibly .