Warrington Wolves vs Hull FC Predictions: Burgess to enjoy fruitful home debut

Warrington Wolves play their first home Betfred Super League game of the Sam Burgess era on Friday night as a wounded Hull FC visit the Halliwell Jones Stadium following their derby day thumping at home to Hull KR (kick-off 20:00 GMT).

While both sides opened the season with defeat, Warrington will have taken positives from a gritty display at Catalans Dragons, where their discipline let them down in a narrow defeat. 

Tony Smith’s Hull FC, meanwhile, had two players sent off and failed to score a point against their bitter rivals in a defeat that their fans will pray does not set the tone for another season of struggle.

Team news

Warrington will make at least two changes, with Jordan Crowther banned for one match following the defeat in France. Teenager Max Wood could be handed his debut. Another teenager, Arron Lindop, drops out of the squad despite a try-scoring debut last week, with Josh Thewlis set to come in after missing out last week to be at the birth of his first child. Hooker Brad Dwyer is left out again.

Hull FC are massively depleted in the pack without the suspended Franklin Pele and Ligi Sao following their red cards in the derby. Pele was handed a four-match ban for head contact which has been reduced to three games following a successful appeal. Sao serves a one-game ban and another forward, Herman Ese’Ese, is suspended for two matches for head contact.

A fourth forward, Joe Cator misses out too. Cator was forced off with a hamstring injury last week and will now miss eight to 10 weeks with what Tony Smith calls a “significant tear”.

Cam Scott misses out with a calf problem and hooker Danny Houghton is absent through head injury protocols. The visitors may therefore be forced to field a youthful side.

Warrington Wolves to win by 11-15 points @ 13/2

Even the most passionate Hull FC fan could not have sat through last Thursday night’s derby, looked at this week’s depleted squad list and been moved to predict that the Black and Whites will hit back at Warrington.

Hull were awful last week, but even with their big list of absentees I am not expecting them to be as bad again. Warrington are well backed to win this one easily but I see it being a little bit tighter, especially if the disciplinary issues that prevented the Wolves winning against 12 men last week are in evidence again.

Sam Burgess will be fired up to win big in his first game at home, and although I expect him to get his way, Hull will be stung into making this one quite difficult.

Josh Thewlis anytime tryscorer @ 4/5

With his teenage deputy Lindop benefiting from Warrington’s right edge attack in France last week, Thewlis returns to the side keen to help himself too.

Thewlis is the reigning Betfred Super League Young Player of the Year after a terrific 2023 and looks a great shout to hit the board running in front of a raucous Warrington crowd here.

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