Salford Red Devils vs Wigan Warriors Predictions: Champions’ charge to continue

In-form Salford Red Devils return home from a stunning win at St Helens to take on defending champions Wigan Warriors on Thursday night in what could be one of the most entertaining games of the Betfred Super League season so far (kick-off 20:00 GMT).

Paul Rowley’s Salford have been defying the odds once again with three successive victories, while the Warriors have the competition’s only 100 per-cent record, and already sit top of the table despite having played a game fewer than all their title rivals. Something has to give at the Salford Community Stadium and our Salford Red Devils vs Wigan Warriors predictions reflect that this is a fixture which will tell us much about both of these sides' ambitions in 2024.

Team news

Having been able to name unchanged squads for the last fortnight, Rowley is finally forced into a few Salford alterations with three former Wigan men unavailable to face their old side.

Stand-off Cade Cust, a winter signing from the Warriors, misses out due to concussion protocols after a head collision against Saints. Another former Wigan man – prop Brad Singleton – is also out injured, while winger Chris Hankinson misses his first match of the season against his hometown club.

Hankinson’s absence could mean a debut for new signing David Nofoaluma, with the NRL flyer having to wait for his chance since arriving from Australia a fortnight ago. Key forward Ollie Partington is still out.

Wigan, meanwhile, make two changes to their squad after a comfortable win at London Broncos. Prop Liam Byrne and try machine Liam Marshall return, so Jacob Douglas and Jack Farrimond drop out.

Hooker Kruise Leeming is still recovering from the ankle injury that he aggravated during the World Club Challenge win over Penrith Panthers, but is likely to be back available next week.

Handicap 3-way Wigan Warriors -8 points @ 20/21

The way Salford are playing I see absolutely no reason why they cannot produce another shock and back up their St Helens triumph by beating the champions. Wigan’s main shortcoming this season has been their discipline - they gave away 11 penalties at London. Indeed, only Hull FC, Leeds Rhinos and Salford have given away more this term, so if Wigan don’t improve that then in-form Mark Sneyd could kick them to death. The Salford scrum-half has been their star man in each of their three consecutive wins and will be the player to lead the Red Devils again here.

That said, the Warriors are big favourites for a reason and are only going to get better and stronger from this point. The fact that they have gone top of the table having played three matches to their rivals’ four while conceding that amount of penalties is pretty ominous, and they rested a few stars last week. So I am going to stick with the favourites here, although not by the margin that some are predicting.

I would expect this to be pretty tight throughout but am going for Wigan to justify their -8 handicap.

Deon Cross & Jai Field to score a try anytime @ 4/1

I like the look of both of these great finishers to go over in this game, so am going for the increased value of backing them both.

Field is a phenomenal danger, and having somehow managed not to score any of Wigan’s 10 tries in London last week you can be pretty certain he’ll fix that up against Salford. Field is yet to score a try this season and it is only a matter of time. Tyler Dupree, by the way, came up trumps for our backers in that London game, as we tipped the big Wigan prop to run in a try at 9/2.

Cross scored the decisive try for the Red Devils in that stunning Saints win, his second of the match, and the former Widnes Vikings man is turning into a key part of this potent Salford attack.

He also scored the week before in the win over Hull Kingston Rovers and I’m backing the 27-year-old to continue his rich vein of form in front of Salford’s raucous home crowd.

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