Five major talking points from this weekend’s super league action

Round 11 marked the point at which every team has played each other once, and so the season has definitely taken shape.

With close fought battles between Saints and Salford, as well as Huddersfield and Wakefield, it was a reminder that there are no easy games. Wigan vs Warrington was the televised game on Friday, and despite it being a huge rivalry steeped in history, Wigan made light work of Daryl Powell’s men.

So, after such an entertaining round, here are the major talking points from this week’s Super League action.

Salford showing huge improvement
Despite being without a win since Round Six, Salford’s performances against the top two sides in the league will give them great confidence. They fought Wigan until the very end last week, being narrowly beaten by a quality Jai Field try. This week, they showed their ability again and, despite having a huge number of players unavailable, they battled league leaders St Helens for the full 80 minutes, and had a good opportunity to win it at the end. With games against Leeds and Castleford coming up, if they can continue to perform at the same level the wins will start to come.

Warrington not where they want to be
The typical jibe aimed at Warrington is that they believe every year is ‘their year,’ and going into this season the same accusation could have been made. With a new Head Coach and having arguably the best halfback partnership in the league, there was belief that they would be able to put up a real challenge to Saints, Wigan and Catalans. However, a promising start was followed by a terrible run of losses, and despite finding some form over Easter, Friday night saw them get heavily beaten by Wigan. The game ended 40-18, but Wigan seemed to take their foot of the pedal on the hour mark. Had they not done so, the scoreline could have been much worse.

Injuries for Hull KR ahead of huge semi final
With one of the biggest games in recent memory for Hull KR on the horizon, there were some real blows dealt during their loss to Leeds on Friday. Three key players look likely to miss their Challenge Cup semi-final against Huddersfield on Saturday. Sam Wood, Lachlan Coote and Matty Storton are all set to miss out, which will make an already difficult game even harder to win. Albert Vete’s suspension is also not ideal. However, there is one positive in terms of injury news, as Tony Smith stated that Kane Linnett would be able to return, which will certainly help their chances.

Leeds are starting to steady the ship
A 12-0 victory over Hull KR made it two from two for Leeds, and will have calmed many nerves over the fate of the club this season. At one point, Leeds were completely unable to find a win, and as the weeks went on, relegation became an unlikely but terrifying prospect for some Leeds fans. But now, with improvements in performance, and Toulouse looking cut adrift at the bottom, they can start to look towards the middle of the table, and maybe even at a push for the play-offs.

Play-off race could be one of the most competitive we’ve seen
There are arguably nine teams that have a chance of getting into the play-offs, and with only six spots available, the stakes will get higher as the end of the season approaches. At this stage, every team has played each other once, and so the table offers a fairly good indication of which teams are likely to end up towards the top of the pile. Hull KR and Huddersfield have surprised many, as they find themselves in the top half, above both Leeds and Warrington. However, with the quality in both squads, you expect an improvement to come from the two teams. So, there will be some very important games at the end of the season.