Super League Magic Weekend: Day One predictions, betting tips and odds

How to watch Magic Weekend

Leigh Leopards vs Catalans Dragons
Sky Sports Action, 3pm Saturday

Hull KR vs Salford Red Devils
Sky Sports Action, 5.15pm Saturday

St Helens vs Leeds Rhinos
Sky Sports Action, 7.30pm Saturday

Best bets

Leigh Leopards -4
3pts 10-11 general

Leeds Rhinos
2pts 13-8 BoyleSports

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Super League Magic Weekend predictions

After a brief stop off at Elland Road in 2024, Super League's Magic Weekend is heading back to the North East and St James' Park for the eighth time.

And with a congested look to the top-flight standings after nine rounds of competition, there is opportunity for all 12 clubs to enhance their prospects for the remainder of the campaign.

Leigh Leopards vs Catalans Dragons

Odds correct at time of publication

Leigh Leopards are sitting pretty in third in Super League and they are fancied to start the festivities on Tyneside with a bang.

Head coach Adrian Lam had to remodel his squad in the off-season but the Leopards are seeing no ill effects of the numerous ins and outs at the Leigh Sports Village.

Leigh have excelled since promotion from the Championship in 2022, winning the Challenge Cup a year later and reaching the semi-finals of the playoffs last term. And another fruitful campaign is in prospect for the Lancashire outfit if the first few months of the season are anything to go by.

Wembley could again be on the agenda for the Leopards, who face Warrington in the semi-finals next Sunday, and a first visit to Old Trafford for the Grand Final will also be on their radar later this year.

Magic opponents Catalans reached the title-decider in 2021 and 2023, but they have not been as strong in the last two seasons. 

The Dragons head for Newcastle having won seven of their last eight matches but two of those wins have come against crisis club Salford, another over rock-bottom Huddersfield, and one against second-tier Featherstone in the Challenge Cup. Indeed, Leeds, in sixth, are the highest-placed team they have beaten this year.

The French raiders were put firmly in their place by Leigh at the end of February, when they were beaten 34-6 in Lancashire and, even with a few injury doubts, a four-point line should be well within the Leopards' capabilities.

Hull KR vs Salford Red Devils

Mikey Lewis is leading Hull KR's bid for honoursCredit: Getty Images

Odds correct at time of publication

The fact Hull KR are 1-500 to beat Salford in Saturday's second offering at St James' Park tells you all you need to know about who will claim the two points.

It should be a training exercise for the table-toppers, who have been the standout team in the competition to date.

Salford are carrying on in the face of adversity and an ever diminishing playing squad – Deon Cross was the latest Red Devil to move on due to the club's precarious financial position this week – but they are at least battling.

A handicap line of 40 points looks on the money, though, and any of Hull KR's potent backline could conceivably get the ball rolling.

St Helens vs Leeds Rhinos

Odds correct at time of publication

St Helens and Leeds forged a fearsome rivalry during the early stages of the millennium which often came to a head in the Grand Final at Old Trafford.

The Rhinos invariably held the upper hand on the biggest stage, winning three straight titles at Saints' expense between 2007 and 2009 before again beating them in the 2011 showpiece, when Rob Burrow scored a dazzling solo try that remains the stuff of Grand Final folklore. 

A motif of Burrow will adorn the Rhinos' shirts at St James' in homage to the legendary half-back, who died in June five years after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease. 

Burrow was so often the gamebreaker for Leeds in their Grand Final wins over St Helens, but it is the Saints who have dominated the rivalry in recent seasons, winning 18 of the pair's 19 meetings since 2018.

That coincides with a period of Super League dominance for the Red Vee and a spell in the doldrums for the Rhinos, but they appear much more closely matched this season.

Only points difference separates the sides in the table and Saints were narrow eight-point winners in the Challenge Cup fourth round in mid-March.

Leeds have beaten Wigan and pushed Warrington (lost 16-14) and Hull KR (lost 20-14) close since in matches that could easily have gone their way, whereas St Helens have lost to the Wolves on three occasions and suffered a 24-14 derby defeat in the Good Friday clash against Wigan.

For all their strikepower out wide, Saints have looked disjointed in attack for much of the campaign and Leeds, who are building under astute Aussie coach Brad Arthur, could strike back in this long-running Super League rivalry.

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