Call me cynical but I'm betting the early rounds pair the top teams with each other, and the bottom teams with each other. Purpose? To give the lower placed sides a chance to close the gap on the top sides, otherwise 2 or 3 teams could be dead and buried after 3 rounds.

Either way theres going to be a lot of meaningless games towards the end, with maybe some teams "not turning up". Lets see

If my understanding of the fixture formula is correct we shall be playing Leeds, Saints and Warrington away and the other four at home. As it tuns out we would have been better off finishing 4th as we would have had a home fixture against either Leeds or Saints.

I bet the club are kicking themselves with how it's worked out fixture-wise, with us not getting a "big" game at home. To not get Leeds, Saints or Wire at home in this stage will have a big effect on the attendances.

I'll be interested to see if they do a BIG ONE or similar for the Super 8's phase. The average home attendance this season has dipped under 14k, and if the plans to take a game to London happen we could really do with at least one home crowd pushing the 20k mark. Guess Hudds would be the only game they could do it for.

They did say that one of the four home games would be played in London. I think they were hoping it could be one the teams we are now playing away. A London game against say Catalan won't bring in a big attendance.

From what I've gathered Catalans has always been earmarked as the London game, providing they made the 8. The club wouldn't want to lose out on the gate money of taking a Saints or Wire game down there, plus away fans would be unlikely to travel for it. Taking the lowest attended game with the fewest away fans makes sense (well the whole London thing doesn't really make sense tbh, but if it has to happen then I can see why it would be Cats)

You could be right. I follow your logic. It might also make it easier for more Catalans fans to get there adding another 10 to the attendance. It might actually be used as a promotional in London I.e. discounted or free tickets to Londerners instead of Wiganers had the game been played at Wigan? Also a UK/FR game might have more appeal to neutrals in London?

The club might also be thinking that a neutral Catalan game doesn't really give up much home advantage and that Catalan don't travel well anywhere.

If Wigan win their home games then they will be in the play-offs. Whether they finish in the top two will depend on the away games at Saints and Leeds. So barring an unforeseen disaster Wigan will have a game to get to OT. An away semi at Saints or Leeds is tough but so would home fixtures against either.

See you at OT!

I don't think it's going to work as you think. The top four will, given the points the teams now have, be decided three or even two fixtures into the super 8's in my opinion. That depends on the Sunday results this weekend to a degree but I don't think the super 8's will go close to the end to be decided who are in the semis. Once teams can't make the top four their approach to the remaining fixtures may well distort the table for the rest of the teams.

you still want to be in the top 2 then you have a home semi final match to get to old trafford

I think it's good that we have got the big 3 away from home as in theory it means we should hopefully win all our home games and we don't have to travel to france for our away game if we had finished 4th

I'm struggling to see an upside...

If we win all four home games we would be guaranteed a top four spot as we would have beaten both Huddersfield and Castleford, and they would have to play each other.

that's what I was thinking, beat st Helens away were we seem to play quite well and we could get 2nd spot

Nice one Wire, 5pts head start