Leigh Leopards vs Warrington Wolves Prediction: No Williams, no party for struggling Wire

Rivals Round continues in the Betfred Super League with an Easter Saturday clash between two sides with play-off ambitions, as Leigh Leopards host Warrington Wolves at Leigh Sports Village in a prelude to a meeting between the two sides in the Betfred Challenge Cup semi-finals (kick-off 13:30 BST, live on BBC2).

The Wolves suffered a surprise home defeat by Hull FC last weekend and will be keen to hit back against a Leopards side with back-to-back wins in April. Below are my Leigh Leopards vs Warrington Wolves predictions, the latest team news and Betfred's full match odds.

Leigh Leopards vs Warrington Wolves Odds

It is notable that Leigh are the team with the bookies' favour here. The Leopards are 4/5 for the win, making them an implied 55.6% chance to pick up the two league points.

Warrington, meanwhile, are available at 11/10 following their defeat to Hull last week which saw them drop to seventh in the Super League. The draw is 18/1, with the Wolves offered a 2.5-point start in the standard two-way handicap market. In those circumstances, Leigh are 10/11 and it's 5/6 for a Wire win with the leg-up.

Team News

Both sides have key injuries heading into this one, with Leigh missing star man Tesi Niu for the next month or so with a pectoral injury. Niu has been one of the game's standout players so far this season and his absence is a big blow to the Leopards.

Ethan O'Neill does return for the home side, while AJ Towse is back in the 21-man squad in place of Louis Brogan.

Warrington have had a real shortage of outside backs recently, with forward Ben Currie playing in the centres. This week they have a problem in the halves too, with last week's Man of the Match, George Williams, ruled out with an ankle injury. I spoke with Williams after the game last weekend and he was hobbling but didn't think too much of it. He has since learned it requires surgery.

Into the squad come Oli Leyland and youngster Ewan Irwin, while prop forward James Harrison is out.

Rugby League Odds

Leigh Leopards 1-12 points @ 2/1

This feels like a flip-of-a-coin game but I give the home side the edge having looked at the two squads. I was at the Halliwell Jones last week to watch a meek surrender by Warrington against Hull FC that angered their head coach Sam Burgess.

The Wolves were blown away before half-time and never looked like completing a comeback despite a much more positive response after half-time.

Without Williams I feel Warrington will lack leadership - it was the England captain who almost single-handedly fired them back into the game last week.

Leigh will miss Niu but have enough strike in the team to win this, albeit I am sticking relatively conservatively in the match betting. Both of our Leigh tips landed last week, with the Leopards beating the -12 handicap at 6/4 and Edwin Ipape scoring our anytime try from hooker at 5/2.

Leigh have won their last three home meetings with Warrington, with last year's fixture finishing 16-12.

I'm backing a similar scoreline in this one at an implied 33.3% probability.

David Armstrong anytime tryscorer @ 1/1

Full-back David Armstrong has been a brilliant signing for the Leopards and his form at the start of the season has seen him land a couple of our anytime try selections. Having nailed out Ipape selection last week, we are back with Armstrong to cross at 1/1.

If Leigh can get on the front foot against Warrington that will create the room for both Ipape and Armstrong to thrive, and both are decent shouts again this week.

You can read all our latest Rugby League Betting Tips at our dedicated Betfred Insights Rugby League content hub