Wigan Warriors and St Helens face off at Magic Weekend

In one of rugby league’s most famous dates in the calendar, Magic Weekend has arrived as rugby sides travel to the North-East to play at Newcastle United’s St James Park.

With some mouth-watering ties, Saints and Wigan is possibly the pick of the bunch as the top two sides in Super League clash in the second game as part of the first day of the event.

Just two points separate the two sides with Saints winning one more game than the Warriors across their respective 17 games so far this campaign. But with both sides having suffered a defeat to each other already this season, this tie is almost impossible to call.

Wigan have been in brilliant form following their Challenge Cup victory in the later stages of May, and would have been a tough opponent for anyone at Magic Weekend.

Since lifting the silverware in May, Wigan have won their following four games, with three away wins against Castleford, Salford and Wakefield respectively along with a home battering of Toulouse.

As for the Saints, they was on an inspiring run of form since losing to Wigan in the Challenge Cup semi-final at Elland Road, winning their next five games including a big win over Hull KR who pushed the Saints all the way.

But the run of consecutive wins didn’t quite carry into Magic Weekend with Kristian Woolf’s side losing last time out in the South of France with a narrow defeat to Catalans Dragons.

Saints looked to be in the driving seat with two tries in the opening 14 minutes, but the Dragons came back twice to win 20-18 in Perpignan.

In terms of the team news ahead of the clash in Newcastle, Matt Peet has made two changes to the side who defeated Wakefield as Tommy Leuluai drops out of the squad along with Sam Halsall.

Whilst Leuluai will be a huge loss for the Warriors who are undoubtedly better with him at their disposal, the Warriors are boosted by the return of off-season signing Cade Cust who returns after dislocating his elbow in the Challenge Cup final win over Huddersfield Giants. Morgan Smithies also returns to the 21-man squad ahead of the trip north.

As for the current Champions, it was confirmed early in the week that the Saints will be without Tommy Makinson.

He joins Mark Percival on the side-lines due to injury but the league leaders are able to recall Konrad Hurrell who missed the Catalans defeat due to injury.

With the game available along with all the other five Magic Weekend fixtures on Sky Sports, the big clash will kick off at 4:45pm.

Magic Weekend results are always ones we look back on and consider significant twists and turns in the rugby league season, and this result could prove to be a crucial indicator on who may well be lifting the League Leaders Shield in the coming months.

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