The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Super League Round 14
The Good
Warrington announced their credentials as proper Super League contenders with their ninth win in a row. The Wire are building momentum but this prized scalp, that of defending champions Leeds, was their biggest catch of the season.
It was the way they went about it too with some dazzling, sometimes brilliant play. Warrington threw the ball around with relish and the Rhinos could do nothing to stop their run. Stefan Ratchford was sensational, with a one-handed offload to put Harvey Livett through a gap that you won’t see any better anywhere else this year. Daryl Clark was classy, Chris Hill and Ben Westwood tireless, and Kevin Brown and Tyrone Roberts pulled the strings with ease. The Wire have real rhythm and purpose right now, and are high on confidence.
For one and two on the table, St Helens and Wigan, it was another victory again over opposition both expected to beat. Saints defeated a credible Catalans, who did put up a fight, while the Warriors slayed a sorry Salford who couldn’t manage to score a single point. It will be strange if either of these two doesn’t the League Leader’s Shield.
Elsewhere it was Wakefield who sprung to life in a resounding nine-try rout of the Robins. It was 18-12 at half-time and Hull KR were matching Trinity, and arguably unlucky to be behind at the break. But in the second half Trinity ran in try after try to blow the Robins off the park.
It was a day where Jacob Miller, Liam Finn and Scott Grix ran the show and wreaked havoc on their Yorkshire foes. After just one win their past eight matches, it was a result Wakefield badly wanted.
The Bad
Widnes were absolutely woeful against fellow cellar dwellers Huddersfield on Friday. In what was a must-win game, the Vikings barely fired a shot in anger. They actually had slightly more possession, but made fewer metres, completed fewer sets, gave away more penalties and made more errors. Widnes’ straight-shooting coach Denis Betts didn’t hold back in his assessment of the match: “That was woeful. It was awful. It had nothing to do with injuries. People had to pay to watch that and it was dire. We contributed massively to that. There were too many poor performances in the group.
The @WTrinityRL winger's second hat-trick against KR in 2018...
The Ugly
The naming of Daryl Clark as the man of the match in Warrington’s 33-22 victory over Leeds was downright farcical. While Clark did have a good game, making 35 tackles and six tackle busts, the clear standout was Harvey Livett. The young forward bagged three tries, made four tackle busts and 155 metres. He was simply sensational and clearly deserved the award.
What made it so bizarre was that Livett didn’t even make the list of four players in the running for the man of the match gong, which are then voted on by the OurLeague app. This is not the first time this season that Sky and the RFL have stuffed up what essentially is an easy process and given the honour to the wrong player. It needs to be fixed, now.
