Magic Weekend day one winners and losers: Matt Dufty, IMG, The city of Leeds
From left to right: Matt Dufty (Warrington), Brad Fash (Hull) and Josh Rourke (London) in action at Magic Weekend
With day one of Magic Weekend now done and dusted, we’ve picked out a handful of winners and losers from the event so far – and we don’t just mean the teams on the field.
The scores on the doors at Elland Road on Saturday were as follows:
- Hull FC 4-29 London Broncos
- Wigan Warriors 20-0 St Helens
- Leeds Rhinos 24-6 Warrington Wolves
Here are our winners and losers from the press box in Leeds…
Winners
London Broncos
London know they’re consigned to relegation no matter what happens, but over the last few weeks, they’ve shown a battling spirit like no other.
They headed into the opening game at Magic Weekend against Hull FC knowing that victory would move them level on competition points with the Airlie Birds at the foot of the table.
Pride alone it may be for, but the Broncos delivered their best yet on the Super League stage this year, well deserving of their big victory.
Harry Robertson
Young Saints ace Robertson ended up on the losing side as they were beaten by Wigan, but he’s most definitely ended the day as a winner in terms of his individual performance.
We thought the was excellent for Paul Wellens’ side at Elland Road, as he has been ever since being called upon earlier this year. He
Sam Walters
Wigan captain Liam Farrell was a late withdrawal from Matt Peet’s matchday squad in their 20-0 win over St Helens, giving an opportunity for Sam Walters to impress: and impress he did.
The towering back-rower played the full 80 minutes and got on the scoresheet in what was, arguably, his best performance in a Wigan shirt to date.
Speaking after the game, Peet said of Walters: “I thought he performed his best game for Wigan so it’s funny how things turn out, isn’t it?
“There’s a few people that are building nicely, and I was made up for Sam.”
Warrington Wolves
It was a good day for Sam Burgess’ side, who won a hard-fought battle against Leeds Rhinos in their home city.
Matt Dufty was outstanding at fullback for the Wire, linking up well with George Williams – a thriving partnership that we have seen so many times this season.
They were impressive on both sides of the ball against the Rhinos: and they’ll be fancying their chances of making the top two and booking a home play-off semi-final come the end of the season.
Losers
Hull FC
It wasn’t a good afternoon for the Black and Whites, who were well-beaten 29-4 by bottom club London Broncos.
Simon Grix’s side have been decimated by injuries and suspensions for the majority of the season, but make no mistake about it, they should be putting up a much better performance than the one they delivered against the Broncos at Elland Road. They were leaky in defence and toothless in attack. Their performance was pretty much the opposite to the Broncos at Elland Road.
IMG
Hull’s loss to kickstart Magic Weekend was a real kick in the teeth for IMG.
They’re going to be relegating London come the end of this season whatever happens, and if the Broncos avoid finishing bottom, it’ll evidence exactly what’s wrong – or unfair, rather – with the system they’ve implemented.
Hull are the only other club that could end the year bottom, and the capital club – who have now beaten FC twice this year – are now level on competition points with them, separated only by points difference.
oSt Helens
Paul Wellens’ side were always going to be up against it this weekend due to the pure decimation that their squad has faced due to injuries and suspensions over the last couple of weeks: but they won’t like being nilled by their arch rivals Wigan.
Overall, it has been a rough couple of months for St Helens, but there’s been a couple of green shoots for the Red V during this period such as the emergence of Harry Robertson, Jonny Vaughan and Jake Burns. Those three, along with the likes of Noah Stephens, are going to be part of the furniture at the Saints for a long time to come yet, you suspect.
The city of Leeds
Leeds United didn’t win at lunchtime, drawing 0-0 away at West Bromwich Albion in the EFL Championship, and the Rhinos were convincingly beaten by Warrington to round the day off at Elland Road – both in front of healthy followings.
It wasn’t exactly a great crowd overall at Elland Road either with just shy of 31,000 in attendance.
The city of Leeds will have generated a bit of extra revenue from the event so far, you’d think, but both of their own clubs will be disappointed with their own showings!
