I think the game will follow exactly the same pattern as wembley. It will be fairly tight in the first quarter, leeds will huff and puff without really stretching warrington.

Between 55 and 70 minutes is where warrington will score 2 or 3 tries and take the game beyond leeds.

Wigan scored 2 and i thought at times they fluffed chances to go at our right side and Wire have a much quicker centre/wing partnership on that side. Warrington also posess a better attacking kicker in Briers. We will only keep Wire down to 2-3 if we're near perfect with our discipline in defence and aren't giving them piggy backs up field and repeat sets.

Good grief might as well not go next week then judging by some of you lot.

We should be favourites, it's like a home game for us.

I wouldn't go that far, but I'd definitely say its a 50-50 contest.

Leeds have the obvious advantage of the massive GF experience, Wire have the advantage of handing Leeds their backsides on a plate in the last 2 major finals they have met.

I'm not sure that playing in front of 70,000 at Old Trafford is any more intimidating than playing in front of 70,000 at Wembley, so I'm not convinced that Wire will freeze on the day, which is obviously a hope that Leeds' fans may harbour.

It will be a tight contest though, and the real turning point could be the weather - A standard October night in Manchester (rain, rain and a bit more rain), will give Leeds an advantage, as a Sinfield-inspired 80 minute grind, could be your best chance of stopping a Wire side that likes to get on a roll and blow away sides, while playing free running rugby.

Just hope both sides turn up and play to their best, as it would be a shame if either side 'bottled' it and it turned into an anti-climax.

Even if it does rain warrington have the kicking game and the forwards for a slow grind. Tony smith is no stranger to those tactics. Whichever way I look at this it's a warrington win I'm afraid. But you just don't know in sport, and we've been here many times before with leeds, up against it in the grand final. That is the good thing, we will be underdogs again, with warrington hot favourites.

Not for one minute do I think Wire will freeze at Old Trafford, and I don't think many do. What I do know is that the Leeds players are 100% confident in the Old Trafford environment, and will approach the game in a completely different frame of mind to the Challenge Cup final. This is their patch, and they won't let go of the trophy easily.

Having said all that, part of me fears a Warrington win in the manner of our 2007 win. Not many Saints fans or even players considered the fact that they might lose to Leeds that year, Saints just didn't lose Grand Final's back then, or any finals for that matter. Yet we turned up and did a comprehensive job on them. Leeds will have to be wary of that this time.

...... That's amateur psychology at its worst!!

Whatever you may think, next weekend is a close call - You have just gone to the side who finished top and beat them without your most potent player.....Wire have stuttered through the play-offs and only really got going in the last 40 minutes at Saints.

League positions and previous cup final meetings will all be pretty irrelevant once the match kicks off and to suggest Wire are an overwhelming favourite is being very naive.

"MADE UP FACT OF THE DAY"!

how many of wire's 17 came through their academy today?

Can I clarify, the academy that beat your academy in the grand final today !

That's fair enough, however the real test us how many will make the transition to the senior side

There will probably be a few spots open given the age profile of Warrington's senior side, so I would expect a few of them will get their chance.

The thing with academy side progression to the first team is there are no prizes really for producing steady SL standard players, what really makes a difference is finding a few top class players and keeping them at the club. Lots of clubs can report decent numbers of players that are first team regulars that came through their academy but the real merit comes in having guys like Sinfield, Burrow and McGuire in the team for a decade which is what Leeds success has been built on.

Warrington have been getting better results at youth level over the past few years but whether we have guys of that calibre we will have to see. It's a shame we were so disorganised in the mid 1990s because when we finished joint top of the league in 1994 and Iestyn Harris & Paul Sculthorpe emerging out of the Academy we could have had a different future had those guys played their careers at Wire.

Saville Row wrote


"DOH"!!! I`ll say again..... "Made up fact of the day"!!

Can't argue with that.