Betfred Super League playoff predictions: St Helens can complete the hat-trick

Free Rugby League tips, best bets and analysis for the Betfred Super League playoffs.

Best bet

St Helens to win the Grand Final
3pts 10-11 general

Already advised (March 25)

Wigan to win the Grand Final
3pts each-way 5-2 Betfred, BoyleSports & Hills

Warrington to win the Grand Final
2pts each-way 7-1 Betfred

Super League playoffs preview

A 12-match winning streak propelled Catalans Dragons to the top of the Betfred Super League and towards lifting the League Leaders' Shield for the first time, but that could be the peak of their success in 2021.

Only ten of the previous 25 regular-season table-toppers have gone on to lift the title and the Dragons have a huge obstacle in their path to the winners' enclosure at Old Trafford in the shape of reigning champions St Helens.

Saints have won the competition a joint-record eight times and go in search of a hat-trick following Grand Final victories in 2019 and 2020.

Kristian Woolf's men already have this season's Betfred Challenge Cup safely locked away in the trophy cabinet and at 10-11 they remain decent value to complete the double.

As the top-two sides in the competition, Catalans and Saints will face just one game each in a bid to book their place at Old Trafford next month and it's hard to envisage a final featuring anyone bar these two.

The markets expect Wigan to be the side looking to slay the Dragons in the semi-finals next week, while Warrington could be St Helens' opponents in the final four.

Adrian Lam's Warriors must first overcome a resurgent Leeds side, but the fight looks to have gone out of the Cherry & Whites who lost to Warrington and St Helens in the final rounds of the season and they look too short at 4-7 to see off the Rhinos.

Leeds won 14-0 at Wigan just four weeks ago and with a host of players returning from injury will be confident of repeating the trick.

The scores have dried up for Wigan, who have plundered 12 points or more in just one of their last six matches, and the Headingley outfit look the bet to reach the final four.

Overcoming the Dragons next week would be a different matter for Leeds altogether, though, while it's hard to see Hull KR getting past the Warrington Wolves in their eliminator.

KR have landed in the playoffs for the first time since 2013 but it could be a short stay for the Robins in the end-of-season jamboree.

Warrington have won the last two meetings by a combined score of 90-36, and Rovers may have run out of steam at the wrong time.

It's been a fantastic effort from Tony Smith's spirited outfit, who are more used to battling it out at the bottom of the table, but having won just two of their final six regular-season matches are the 40-1 outsiders of the sides remaining in the competition.

KR lost their final fixture 36-12 at Leeds and the Wolves could also make light work of them on home soil.

That would leave a semi-final decider with St Helens and although they have got the better of the Red Vee once this season, a rested and focused Saints side could call bring an abrupt end to the Wolves' season and set up the possibility of a mouthwatering Old Trafford showpiece with Catalans on October 9.

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