Sports Blog 03/10/2017: Super League Grand Final Preview – Castleford vs Leeds, Saturday 7th October 2017

Can Castleford secure their 1st Super League title, or will Leeds make it a record 8th win this Saturday?

It is fitting that it is these 2 sides in the Grand Final. The Tigers, especially, deserve it; they led by 10 points at the end of the regular season, and maintained that gap throughout the Super 8s, securing their 1st ever League Leaders Shield in the process.

They almost messed things up in the play-offs last Thursday, however. At the end of half time they were trailing St Helens – who had finished the Super 8s in 4th, 17 points behind Castleford – 8-10, only to pull it back to 22-22 by the end of normal time.



It eventually took an extra-time drop-goal from Luke Gale, who had his appendix removed just 3 weeks ago, for Castleford to book their tickets to Old Trafford. That was Gale’s 129th drop-goal of the season, leaving him far and away Super League XXII’s top scorer with 317 points, 63 ahead of St Helens’ Mark Percival.

Not that Leeds had a much smoother journey to the finals. With Castleford constantly out of reach the Rhinos had to settle for 2nd, 5 points ahead of their play-off opponents Hull FC. And while Brian McDermott’s side didn’t suffer the tension of extra-time, they certainly made a meal of things on Friday.

Within 19 minutes the Rhinos were 12-0 up, surging ahead thanks to tries from Stevie Ward and Anthony Mullally (and a pair of conversions from Kallum Watkins). Hull had made it 12-6 by the break, before taking a 12-16 lead after 20 minutes of the 2nd half. Yet a Liam Sutcliffe try, and Watkins conversion, took the game of the Rhinos, sending them into a record-tying 10th Super League Grand Final.

So, who will triumph on Saturday? While Castleford have dominated all season, Leeds know how to rise to the occasion – though the Rhinos have only picked up 3 League Leader’s Shields, they’ve won 7 Grand Finals, all since 2004. Still, the Tigers have been the team to beat in 2017, with Spreadex offering a Castleford/Leeds Points Supremacy spread of 4-7.