If Steve Price thought he had a tough job taking over at Warrington he knows for certain now!
The star names need to up their game if the Wolves are to get anywhere near silverware this season.
St Helens are a class act and are already 2/1 favourites at Betfred to win the Grand Final.
The Wire didn’t buckle and the 30-12 score-line flattered the unbeaten, table-topping visitors last week but the season stats so far are damning.
Warrington have won two and lost four leaving them hovering below midtable in the Betfred Super League…and that’s not good enough for such an ambitious, well-supported club.
With five Warrington players making the England elite performance squad it re-enforces the strength of the squad – and it’s a puzzle to me that they cannot muster a challenge to the dominance of traditional rivals Saints, Wigan and Leeds.
The Aussie coach has been bemoaning the Wolves’ penalty count but it is six weeks into the season and he’ll know this is an issue that he knows should have been sorted in training by now.
Still, you do think Warrington will sooner than later get their act together and take out the gathering criticism on someone – and very possibly in France against Catalans.
The Betfred Super League bottom club were fortunate to narrowly beat promoted Hull KR last weekend but wounded Warrington go into this Saturday’s match as the slight favourites with Betfred.
Wire are 4/6 to win with Catalans 6/5 while winger Tom Lineham is the 7/1 favourite with us to score first.
Meanwhile, we’re well into another glorious action-packed Cheltenham Festival.
What makes it such a sporting spectacled…well, everything as far as I’m concerned!
It’s a place where heroes are born. Festival legends are made in the most picturesque of sporting amphitheatres. The greatest show on turf! It is the Olympics of jump racing. A venue where all classes come together to enjoy the best equine athletes the world has to offer.
By the end of the week, around 260,000 punters will have paraded around Prestbury Park many in their finest tweed, contributing £20m to racing while the event is worth £100m to the Gloucestershire economy.
It’s an occasion now synonymous with the ‘Irish Invasion’.
Just one of the intriguing battles is between the trainers of Ireland and England…although the competition between punters trying to get one over us bookies is what resonates with everyone which I do find a tad upsetting as I always thought I was a popular kind of fella!
The word ‘Sport’ is not just confined to the action on the track. The sporting behaviour of connections, the sporting atmosphere between the patrons, and the sporting element of finding those all elusive winners.
It is the most competitive racing of the season, hence why the rewards for finding a winner are of the highest order.
Cheltenham with its iconic green turf, at the base of Cleeve Hill which – akin to the Hollywood Hills for Horses – dates back to 1861 to Rock The World’s victory in the final race in 2017… and everything in between.
Every racegoer has their favourite memory of Cheltenham festivals gone by. The five Gold Cup wins for Golden Miller, the battles between Sea Pigeon, Night Nurse and Monksfield. Or how about the legendary Peter O’Sullevan commentary on the gutsy Gold Cup victory of Desert Orchid in 1989? The 100/1 success of Norton’s Coin a year later?
Friday’s Gold Cup looks one of the hardest ever to call, and with reigning champion Sizing John ruled out last week, the field looks more open than ever. Might Bite is, however, a worthy favourite after his RSA and King George successes, but with his quirks, many punters will opt to oppose.
Finally, it is looking like West Brom will be the first club to crashing through the Premier League trap door. There was substantial interest pre-season on the three promoted clubs, Brighton, Newcastle and Huddersfield being unable to cope with the big boys and going straight down. But they have all shown guts and character, surprising a few so called experts. They were in August 8/1 with us to all be relegated -but that’s 270/1 now.
