The Rhinos travel to the DW Stadium as they look to make amends on what has been a dismal start to their season. They started off on the wrong foot, suffering losses to both Castleford and Wakefield, yet they had the World Club Challenge to focus on. Another defeat was to follow as they lost this enormous fixture to Melbourne Storm. That defeat should have been the catalyst to improve but they have shown no signs of any improvement. With high profile injuries such as Scott Donald, Greg Eastwood and Jamie Peacock, things are going from bad to worse for the Super League Champions. The stats don’t do them any favours either. They have only won once away to Wigan (in 2006, 24-16) in the last four years. Last year Leeds went 10-0 up but Wigan managed to bounce back to score 28 unanswered points and claim the victory. Surprisingly that defeat was to be the last one of the season for the Rhinos as they went onto win their third title in a row. The Warriors, currently top of the table and two points clear, are scoring on average 36 points per game compared to only 25 points for Leeds. Their defensive record at home is also something that has greatly improved, conceding an average of only 9 points per game.
The man of the moment is certainly Amos Roberts. His silky footwork against Castleford led him to a hat-trick of tries and there are resemblances to Wigan legend Martin Offiah. The top try scorer of the season so far (alongside team member Pat Richards) is a best priced 11/1 (Sportingbet) to open the scoring again. This should be a tight encounter, Wigan can cover the handicap with the form that they are in, which is trading around the -6 mark.
