Super League: Phil Clarke looks at the four teams vying for a spot in the Grand Final

Phil Clarke

Rugby League Expert & Columnist

Wednesday 1 October 2014 14:49, UK

The number one goal for all players and teams at the start of pre-season training is to make it to the Grand Final. It is the ‘aim of the game’ and four teams still have a chance of achieving it.

To do so, they need to out-perform their opponents over the course of 80 minutes. Imagine the pressure that they are under.

They will have sacrificed about 80,000 minutes of their time this year through a combination of games, travel and training regimes, and it all comes down to being better than the other team over two blocks of 40 minutes this week.

Logic suggests that the two home teams will win. They have been better all season and had a week longer to rest and prepare. But the game is called rugby league not rugby logic and the underdogs in this one always have a chance.

St Helens demonstrated that you can win big games with brutal defence when they beat Castleford by 41 points to nil. This season their tackle success rate has been about 92% i.e. they have missed about 8% of the tackles that they have tried to make in matches. In week one of the playoffs they completed 97% and denied Castleford any time or space with the ball.

Who needs your main attacking players if the ones out there are prepared and able to defend like this? They frustrated their opponents into errors and managed to score their first two tries without making a pass. James Roby is still the one to watch when the Saints have their hands on the ball.

We have never seen a team from seventh or from France in the Grand Final, could this be the year? On the evidence of the last two weeks you would have to conclude that Catalan have underachieved this season. Only the two relegated teams and Hull had a worse AWAY record than the Dragons in 2014 and then all of a sudden they beat Leeds and Huddersfield in West Yorkshire.

Swings

One year at a professional rugby league club is like five years to the rest of us. The swings of highs and lows are so extreme, even in the space of the same week at times. It is remarkable that they are just one win from Old Trafford when you look at their side that started the season.

It is easy to forget that their number 1 jersey was worn by Brent Webb when they kicked off this campaign and that the number 3 was their main man for 23 of the games. When we travelled down to Perpignan for their game against Hull KR in round 10, some of the Dragons staff thought that Leon Pryce had been their best player up to that point in time.

He was instrumental in their win on Easter Monday and has created and set up more tries than any other Catalan player this season. They are now without both of them as they look to add to their frequent flyer points again and make it six wins in a row.

We are all aware of the amazing feats of strength and endurance that people are able to do in extreme circumstances. Mothers have been known to lift a car off their children; fathers have smashed through walls to save their children from a fire. Laurent Frayssinous touched on this when he said that the body is able to do remarkable things if the mind is willing. Well, I can’t wait to see how willing those minds are on Thursday night in St Helens.

Some people say that the team that finishes first deserve to be in the Grand Final, they might be right, but those are not the rules and St Helens need to earn the right to walk down the tunnel in Manchester.

The last time that those two teams met in a match as close to this was at the new Wembley in 2007. At that time the Dragons could not handle the occasion or their opponents. Will it be different this time?

Fiery

Games between Wigan and Warrington have a long history of being fiery events, it has happened for many years and it would not surprise me if this match sees a red card in it. Paul Wood was very lucky not to get one in round 27 and both teams need to tread a fine line.

There must be a big question mark over the Wolves' ability to go the full 80 minutes with Wigan. Twice in the last 12 months they have crumbled in the second half - in last year’s Grand Final and in the last league game of the season.

I know that they have suffered injuries in both games but it does appear as if they are not as fit as the Warriors.

It will be fascinating to see if Matthew Russell makes a recovery in time to play again this year. No player in the competition has made as many metres as him and he’s proved to be the most difficult player to stop when he has the ball in his hands.

If he does not play then Warrington need to hope that one or two of their other players are able to break the Wigan defence.

Good luck to all four teams; I know how hard you have worked to get to this point. Play it hard and play it fair, let the best teams win!

Thank you for all the feedback that you posted following the article last week. I will pass it onto the people I know at the RFL. I hope that we see great crowds this week and the games that deserve a Grand Final performance.