Warrington should have enough to oust cash-rich Toronto

Toronto v Warrington
BBC2, 3.30pm Sunday

Something has to give at the Halliwell Jones Stadium as two of rugby league's longest winning streaks collide.

Warrington have won their last nine games but that sequence of success is trumped by Toronto's ten straight triumphs.

The Wolfpack are three points clear at the top of the Betfred Championship and punters pondering an 18-point handicap need to assess how good they are.

The cash-rich Canadian club are only in their second season in UK rugby league but they have flexed their financial muscles to sign players from Super League sides.

Up to five ex-Wolves may line up against their former employers with Ashton Sims, Matty Russell, Gareth O'Brien, Gary Wheeler and James Laithwaite all in the Toronto squad.

This is a major examination for the Woolpack as they face Super League's third-placed side, who rallied from 11 points down to win 33-22 at Leeds last time out.

Paul Rowley's team are probably at the level of sides in the bottom half of Super League and Warrington have won six of their seven matches against such opposition this season.

At home, they've won four from four with winning margins of 34, 14, 14 and ten points and looking back three years to when then-Championship leaders Leigh visited Warrington in the cup, the Wolves won 34-24.

It may pay to play in the winning-margin market. A home win by six to ten points is 7-1 and a victory by 11 to 15 points is 13-2, making the combined price a shade under 3-1. That seems more than fair.

In Sunday's other tie, cup favourites Wigan are 1-6 to make the quarter-finals at the expense of injury-hit Hull KR.

Rovers are missing 13 first-teamers including Danny McGuire, while the Warriors can recall captain Sean O'Loughlin and Liam Farrell as they bid to confirm the form of their Easter Monday rout of the Robins.

On that occasion Shaun Wane's side converted a 26-0 half-time lead into a 44-6 victory.

Wigan have won all 13 second halves they've played this season, ten of them by a double-digit margin, so it could be worth backing the Warriors to make hay after the break again.

They can successfully concede a second-stanza start of eight.

Recommendations
Warrington to win by six to ten points
1pt 7-1 Betfred
Warrington to win by 11 to 15 points
1pt 13-2 bet365
Wigan -8 on second-half handicap
3pts 10-11 Ladbrokes

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