Leigh Leopards vs Warrington Wolves Prediction: 11/2 for a trio of scorers in Liverpool

Leigh Leopards vs Warrington Wolves Odds

Betfred has Leigh Leopards as the favourites for this clash. Warrington Wolves are 2/1 to come away with the victory, while the draw is a 16/1 bet.

Team News

Warrington head coach Sam Burgess makes three changes to the squad who edged past Catalans Dragons by two points last week, and all three are enforced.

Arron Lindop, Josh Thewlis and Jordy Crowther all picked up injuries in the Dragons game, adding to an already lengthy list of absences for the team second in the table.

Lindop was helped from the field in just his second match back following a year out with an ACL injury. The fears in the tunnel at full-time were that he had suffered the same issue again. A six-week lay-off was the best possible news from scans this week.

The three to come in are the other Thewlis brother Jake - recalled from his loan at Championship side Oldham - and fellow youngsters Tommy Rhodes and prop Charlie McKler, the latter making the senior squad for the very first time.

Forward Toff Sipley is still out but not far off returning, so too is centre Toby King, whose place had been taken by Lindop.

Full-back Cai Taylor-Wray is also not yet ready to return, with forwards Sam Stone and Joe Philbin both a few weeks away.

Leigh boss Adrian Lam names an unchanged squad, which is positive enough news given the injuries they have been dealing with this year.

New signing Lazarus Vaalepu is not in the country yet, so fans will have to wait a little while longer to see the Samoan prop.

Winning Margin: Leigh Leopards 1-12 points  @ 21/10

The betting is really interesting in this one considering the Wolves are just one win off top spot and Leigh are out of the play-off picture as it stands.

The Leopards head to Merseyside with an eight-point handicap to overturn, going into the game as odds-on favourites in the outright betting with Betfred.

That shows you that we may not expect to see the best version of Warrington at Magic given their injury problems and a recent run of form that has seen them walloped by the Rhinos and limp home unconvincingly by two points against the Dragons.

That was a pretty agonising 50/50 that we came down on the wrong side of - it was a flip of a coin to take on the 10-point handicap or back the 1-12 point Warrington win, and we went with the former.

This week is a fascinating one. I still really like this Wolves team and am not anticipating the traditional fade that often blights them in the second half of the season. But given the injury list and the upturn in Leigh's own form - four wins in their last five with the only defeat coming against champions Hull KR - I feel the market is probably right under the circumstances.

Two meetings this season have both gone Warrington's way - 24-10 in the Cup and a big 42-6 Super League win when Leigh were down on bodies. I sense this could be tighter either way.

But what Leigh do have right now is the hottest tryscorer the British game has ever produced. Veteran winger Josh Charnley is extending his lead over Ryan Hall at the top of the all-time Super League tryscorers chart, having bagged another four in the win at Toulouse last week to hit 20 for the season. Only the unstoppable Maika Sivo (27) has more.

That kind of scoring form, added to Warrington's recent bluntness in attack, leads me to back a Leopards win.

Rugby League Odds

Pick Your Punt: Josh Charnley, Innes Senior & Matty Ashton All To Score A Try @ 11/2

Charnley is the 4/5 most-fancied scorer in this week's anytime market and a 6/1 pick to score the game's opening try.

Wire's England winger Matty Ashton is the other hot pick at 10/11.

Reliable selections that have added value are Wire centre Josh Smith at 6/4 (he's due a try too) and Leopards full-back David Armstrong (6/5).

But I want to find a way to back Charnley, so there are a couple of Pick Your Punt selections that take my eye.

A Charnley try and a Leigh win at -2.5 returns at 7/4, while backing both Leigh wingers Charnley and Innes Senior, plus Ashton all to score in the game returns a juicy 11/2.