St Helens v Leeds Rhinos: What the experts say

John KearLee Gaskell and Jonny Lomax have been fantastic half-backs this season for Saints but to run a game like a Super League Grand Final at their age is a massive ask and that’s partly why I think Leeds Rhinos will win.

St Helens have been great all year but there are a few signs of nerves in the young wingers Tom Makinson and Jamie Foster and I just think Leeds’s greater experience of winning Grand Finals will see them through.

If Brent Webb, Kevin Sinfield, Danny McGuire, Danny Buderus and Rob Burrow play as they have done of late, they have every chance. What a piece of history it would be to win from fifth?

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That last player – Rob Burrow – has been an absolute revelation over the last eight weeks. He has been superb after going on at hooker and coming on the back of some quick play-the-balls, and that has been instrumental in Leeds’s great form. Buderus is important, as he showed at Warrington last week, but Burrow is the key man for me.

Saints’ front-row is phenomenal. Tony Puletua, James Roby and James Graham all play long minutes and Rhinos must concentrate on containing that ruck speed so Roby can’t play off the back.

Then make it as uncomfortable as possible for those young half-backs.

Danny Orr

Leeds have some great players who know how to win this competition but I just feel St Helens might pip it.

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Both sides have been in great form over the last eight weeks or so. Leeds had been written off halfway though the year but I reckon the turning point for them was when they actually beat us in the Challenge Cup semi-final.

They’ve properly kicked on since and, even though they lost the final against Wigan, they put in a great performance which I think gave them the belief they could really do something.

The players who have impressed me in both sides are at prop. At Leeds, people like Kylie Leuluai and Ryan Bailey are both going really well and there’s JP too while at Saints, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, James Graham and Tony Puletua are having quality seasons.

With them doing their jobs like that, it’s set the platform for their half-backs and it means there’s two evenly matched teams at Old Trafford on Saturday.

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Saints might just have the edge and it would be great for Louie if that happened.

I played with him at Harlequins and saw him develop. It was a big decision to move to Saints this season and he did so to win trophies. He’s settled in brilliantly and might get to do that in his first year.

David Solomona

THese two sides almost cancel each other out when it comes to comparing their forwards and backs.

I think in the end, the difference will be the kicking games and whose set of halves can dominate.

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Will it be Danny McGuire and Kevin Sinfield or the two young lads Lee Gaskell and Jonny Lomax?

It’s hard to call but I think experience will go a long way to deciding the game and Leeds have more of that in terms of actually winning Grand Finals.

They didn’t surprise us last Friday. We prepared well but just didn’t play particularly great.

Everyone talks about Leeds being on a roll, but they forget we at Warrington had not been beaten for three months.

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Saints have lost the last four Grand Finals so they will be desperate to end that run and you would think that has to happen some time soon.

I hope it does on Saturday for my friends in that Saints team; most of my mates at Leeds have won it so many times before but there’s so many at Saints who haven’t.

It’s going to be a tough match and I think it will be really close, but it will come down to whoever delivers the best kicking game and that is the challenge to both sets of half-backs.