Final Round Results, Ladder and Play Off draw

[bartman]

Final Round results:

London 68 - Widnes 10, Crowd 3,885 (comfortable win, but next week away might be very different)
Huddersfield 22 - Wigan 36, Crowd 5,970 (five wins from last six games not enough in the end)
St Helens 18 - Bradford 32, Crowd 11,064 (first home defeat of the season for Saints)
Leeds 34 - Wakefield 26, Crowd 17, 619 (any win is better than five straight losses...)
Leigh 14 - Salford 20, Crowd 3,519 (jumped Wakefield for 9th spot)
Hull 16 - Warrington 30, Crowd 15,763 (closer than the score sounds)


Final Ladder (after 28 rounds):

1 St Helens 23-1-4 +491 47
2 Leeds 22-6 +647 44
3 Bradford 18-1-9 +354 37
4 Warrington 18-10 +90 36
5 Hull 15-2-11 +86 32
6 London 13-2-13 +82 28
- - - - -
7 Wigan 14-14 -20 28
8 Huddersfield 12-16 -49 24
9 Salford 11-17 -183 22
10 Wakefield 10-18 -283 20
- - - - -
11 Widnes 6-1-21 -450 13
12 Leigh 2-1-25 -765 5


Super League Play-Off draw:

WEEK 1 - Elimination Play-Offs
Friday, September 23 (8pm Odsal) - Bradford v London (loser eliminated).
Saturday, September 24 (6.05pm Halliwell Jones) - Warrington v Hull (loser eliminated).

WEEK 2 - Semi Finals
Friday, September 30 (8pm Knowsley Road) - St Helens v Leeds Rhinos (winner to Grand Final).
Saturday, October 1 (6.05pm venue tbc) - winner of first elimination play-off v winner second elimination play-off (loser eliminated).

WEEK 3 - Final Eliminator
Friday, October 7 (8pm venue tbc) - loser of St Helens-Leeds v winner of elimination semi-final (winner to Grand Final).

WEEK 4 - Grand Final
Saturday 15th October (6pm Old Trafford, Manchester) - engage Super League Grand Final. Winner of St Helens-Leeds v winner of final eliminator.

 

[SFW]

Good wrap-up that.

Watch for Bradford in the playoffs. A pretty poor game last night in all honesty, but Bradford blew Saints away in the last 20 minutes with 5 unanswered tries. Their backline is looking very good and with the addition of Morley their forwards are going to take some stopping too. A formidable looking outfit, and I hope Saints get over Leeds in 2 weeks because I wouldn't like to see Bradford again any time soon.

I'll take Bradford to blow away London and Warrington to sneak past Hull next week.

Saints tried a few different things out last night. Roby, Higham and Wilkin all played halfback at some stage and I think we'll go with Wilkin there against Leeds. Pretty worried by the defensive collapse near the end but I don't expect anything like that to happen in the finals and I'm cautiously confident that we can beat Leeds and get to the final at the first attempt.

 

[Evil Homer]

The crowd at Huddersfield was actually 5970.

 

[JasonE]

The Wire v Hull FC game should be even better than last week, it will be one of the games of the year imo.

 

[Fairleigh Good!]

It SHOULD have been a Saints - Bradford final. Those teams are far and away better at the moment than any other. Leeds look awful and Hull have focused their energies on the Cup and look lost in the league. Warrington have their miracle man, but still look a pretty average side.

I feel Leeds are going to be the main beneficiaries of Terry Newton's actions. I would pick them to beat Saints at Knowsley Road now. Without Long there is no creativity at half back and without Darren Albert we have lost our most effective weapon in the Lyon-Albert right wing combination.

I'd pick London and Hull to go out first round. Bradford to go on to beat Warrington at Odsal and Saints at Knowsley Road to play Leeds in the final. Bradford champs 05 is my bet.

 

[Weasels Ripped My Flesh]

Wakey will be back next year, better then ever!

 

[bartman]

Thanks EH, fixed now.

I have a strange feeling that Hull might come close to outing Warrington this weekend? They didn't look too far out of it last week, and now they've had a first-hand look at the Wolves with Johns, I expect them to come up with a plan to try and neutralise him/them.

But then again, I'm not going great in the tipping comp, so who knows? But Hull were very good in neutralising teams on their day in the Cup and scoring "surprise" wins over both Saints and Leeds. With their seasons on the line I think it will be a great clash!

 

[Dakink]

Go you Broncos! Anyone give them a whiskers chance in hell?

Can Joey lead Warrington further in the play-offs? He has an amazing ability to lift the level of players around him - point Newcastle this year with him v without him.

 

[JasonE]

.
I have a strange feeling that Hull might come close to outing Warrington this weekend? They didn't look too far out of it last week, and now they've had a first-hand look at the Wolves with Johns, I expect them to come up with a plan to try and neutralise him/them.

Me too, I think Hull FC can win, it should be a tight game.

 

[bartman]

Go you Broncos! Anyone give them a whiskers chance in hell?

I don't think so. I think Bradford at home will be far too strong... but we'll soon see!

 

[jed]

Bradford 44 d London 22

Bradford - tries to Iestyn Harris (2), Lesley Vainikolo (2), Jamie Peacock, Shontayne Hape, Ian Henderson & Karl Pryce, goals to Iestyn Harris (5) and Karl Pryce
London - tries to Solomon Haumono (2), Jon Wells & Zebastian Lucky Luisi, goals to Paul Sykes (3)

 

[LESStar58]

Go you Saints!

 

[jed]

With the Bulls winning this morning (last night for the Poms ;-)), they'll play the winner of the Warrington vs Hull FC game next Saturday night at Odsal, 6:05pm (3:05am AEST time)

 

[bartman]

And the London Broncos name is now officially no more... known as "Harlequins RL" from now on.

 

[jed]

Apparently the crowd hung around at the end of the game to clap the Broncos off the field for the last time.

A very sad day indeed.