All ready for Super League’s return
BETFRED Super League is back on Sunday… and I can’t wait for the drama of this great sport to resume.
Unfortunately though, this doesn’t include the fantastic fans of rugby league quite yet, who will have to wait a while longer to be allowed into the stadiums to take in the live action.
Still, we’re on TV which is a start. The important thing is the game has survived, certainly not unscathed but by everyone sticking together through lockdown.
I was mightily relieved that with the results of the first bout of testing within the clubs, with no positive results recorded. All players and staff have had to endure two tests so far under the protocols, with 924 tests carried out in total.
First up its Leeds v Huddersfield and then current champions Saints taking on the Catalan Dragons in a double-header at Headingley.
With over four months since the last fixtures played, it’s like the start of a new season with players fresh and some fully recovered from injury. We’ll soon find out who has kept in trim and it will be interesting to see how the new rules including no-scrums and the ‘6 again’ penalty affect the game. One expert double Man of Steel winner Paul Sculthorpe reckons the changes will ensure more ball in play and therefore faster games so suiting the more athletic teams… and he should know.
Betfred have Saints 5/2 favourites to repeat last season’s success as Grand Final winners, with great rivals Wigan and Warrington both 3/1, followed by Yorkshire’s two biggest clubs Leeds and Castleford at 8/1.
As for my home town club Salford Red Devils – our season starts also at Headingley against Hull FC on August 9 – well they are 150/1 shots with us to go one better than last season and win the Grand Final.
Ahead of the Betfred Super League resumption it is the small matter of the FA Cup final at Wembley on Saturday – and I still can’t get my head around the fact City and United both flopped in their semi-finals to set up an all London showdown between Chelsea and Arsenal.
Chelsea, who came so close to pipping my team United to third place in the Premier League, are not surprisingly 8/13 favourites at Betfred to lift the cup with the Gunners 5/4 shots.
Arsenal’s top gun Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is 100/30 to open the scoring in the final while we have Olivier Giroud at 4/1 to do likewise for Chelsea.
Aubameyang’s double against now relegated Watford in the dramatic last day of the Premier League season on Sunday almost ruined it for two Betfred customers who picked my pockets big time by correctly predicting the top scorers in all four divisions.
A customer from south Yorkshire and another from Newcastle both smashed odds of 80/1 to wager than Jamie Vardy would score most in the Premier League and that Alexsandar Mitrovic should do so for Fulham in the Championship. Regarding League One and Two we paid out on Ivan Toney of Peterborough and Eoin Doyle – formerly of Swindon now at Bolton Wanderers – as the EFL curtailed their seasons when they were well ahead in the scoring charts.
The customer in Newcastle enjoyed a £27,819 return from his once in lifetime bet of £650. The Betfred regular in Yorkshire, who also had Raith Rovers to win the Scottish League One and Dundee United to top the Scottish Championship, won a whopping £100,000 from a £240 stake.