This Saturday Widnes travel to the South of France to take on Catalans, the winner will be guaranteed Super League next status season, the loser will take on Leigh in the Million Pound Game.
The Centurions play their final game of the qualifiers the night before against London who are now out of the reckoning after losing at Widnes last weekend.
But here lies the problem, Leigh currently lie 2 points behind both Widnes and Catalans going into the final weekend so if they beat London will be level on points with both.
If the Vikings win in the South of France we have no real problem, the Dragons will travel to the Leigh Sports Village for the Relegation shoot out but if Catalans win then who will host the biggest game of the season?
Leigh have a massive points difference advantage over the French outfit.
If the Centurions win by around 16 points Widnes will know that a defeat by less than 2 scores will give them home advantage in the MPG.
They will know exactly where they stand and surely that is unfair.
Regardless of TV calling the shots all final round games should kick off at the same time, thus avoiding one team having an advantage.
For all we are only talking about home advantage here, if Leigh had won at Warrington, Catalans and Widnes would have known what they needed to do to claim the crucial third spot. Surely that’s an unfair advantage? Especially if you were playing in a game against a side with nothing to play for.
We have to get this right, the Million Pound Game is the most important game of the year, the loser of the Grand Final won’t have to make staff redundant due to loss of revenue.
Mind you on Saturday Wigan travel to Wakefield, they are currently level on points with St Helens, now the points difference is massive in favour of the Red V, but if it was closer again the Warriors, who play 24 hours later would have the advantage of knowing exactly how many they need to win by.
Wind back to 2010, in the last round of fixtures Warrington and St Helens were level on points in 2nd place going into the final round of League games.
Warrington played at London on the Friday, Saints at home to Cas the day after.
A 14 point win in the capital left the Wolves 2 points clear in the table and a points difference 8 points higher. Saints knew that a win of 9 points or more against Castleford would give them 2nd place and home advantage in the play offs.
The game was a classic with the game tied until 3 minutes from time when Gidley scored to put the Saints 4 points in front, with Saints knowing they needed a win by 10 they kicked a short kick off and scored again, they knew exactly what they had to do… this can’t be right.
Yes it’s all about ifs and buts. Our game is often the pioneers of using new technology etc, leading the way to be followed by other sports, but surely we should be following other sports, who are also at the mercy of Sky and make sure final round games kick off at the same time.
