It is Castleford v Leeds for the 2017 Rugby League Grand Final on Sunday, October 7th. This is the culmination of a long season. At the end of the regular season, the top eight sides in the standings went through to the Super League Super 8s and then the top four from the final standings went through to the play offs, from which, Castleford and Leeds emerged triumphant and will meet at Old Trafford now on the weekend.
Castleford v Leeds Rugby League Grand Final Odds
Castleford 4/7, Leeds 6/4, Draw 22/1
Castleford
The Tigers topped out the regular season standings and also the final standings from the Super League Super 8’s. They finished that ten points clear of second placed Leeds so they are going into this as favourites. Castleford touched down the most tries throughout the course of the season overall, and they do look primed to collect their first ever Grand Final trophy. One of the big assets of Castleford is that they play to the full width of the pitch and just stretch defences thin and they do that from deep inside their own half as well. Castleford have a superb link up play between forwards and backs and they will spray the ball around with a lot more accuracy than anyone else this season has been able to do.
But they are inexperienced in this scenario and there is no way to know how well they will handle the pressure. They went up against St Helens in the semi finals and for the first time this season you saw them stressed and tense as they edged their way to a 23-22 victory. Castleford’s Greg Eden is the outright favourite in the Betfred First Try scorer market at a price of 7/1. He was top scorer this season by a country mile, touching down 38 times in an astounding season. Just to put that into context, Matt Parcell was Leeds’ top scorer with 17 tires.
Leeds
So Leeds finished runner up to Castleford at the end of the regular season and after the Super 8’s. While no-one could match the scoring power of Castleford at all across the course of the season if you break it down and look just at the tries scored in the seven-match Super 8’s, Leeds only scored one less try than the Tigers did. So that hints that the gap has closed a little bit between the two sides. Leeds though have gone up against Castleford four times this season now and have lost all four of those matches. So has the gap closed enough for them to go out and get the win on the board at Old Trafford?
They are experienced, that is for sure, with six titles in the last decade and that is the kind of experience that can count for a lot on the big occasion. Leeds seem to play more of an ad-lib type of attacking style, forcing indecisiveness in the defence of their opposition by running sideways, moving their quicker players around and initiating different running angles. Because they play on the fly, there is no way defences can really have a set plan against them, but the Rhinos go off in any and all directions. Leeds and their unstructured style beat Hull 18-16 in the semi finals.
Gradn Final Preview
Back in March, Castleford destroyed Leeds 66-10 and at the end of the match, it was hard to imagine that Leads would be walking out in the Grand Final on the weekend. But they have come with great aplomb. After winning the treble the season before last, twelve months ago they found themselves in the position of having to sweat with relegation issues. But coach Brian McDermott has got them going with momentum again and they are thoroughly entertaining with their random style. Castleford though hammered St Helens in the Challenge Cup Final and have had such a stunning season. They have the winning form over the Rhino’s this season and they have a points difference of +391 at the end of the regular season in contrast to Leeds’ points difference of +76. That extra firepower has to count. Castleford to cover a -4 handicap at Betfred for even money is well worth a punt.
