#SuddenDeathShowdown Preview (Part 1) - When a dynasty meets history...

This weekend is all about sudden death showdowns. Here’s a list of the do-or die matches:

As big as it gets? We start our look forward to the weekend’s action chronologically. Friday night sees a repeat of the preliminary final with Wigan and Salford meeting at the DW Stadium.

That game was a ferocious battle. The two teams, primed like stags, neither of whom would relent. A game that would have been worthy of Old Trafford itself. The prize on offer two weeks ago was the right to go to St Helens to fight for a place at Old Trafford.

This time the stakes are far higher. This time the two teams find their seasons on the line. It’s been a long year, we started at the back end of January. All of that work and toil comes down to Friday night.

Both sides go into this game on the back of contrasting performances. Salford delivered a dominant defensive display and a clinical attacking performance to comfortably see off the challenge of Castleford.

Wigan come into the game on the back of a chastening defeat to bitter rivals St Helens. Of course Wigan have had to react to losses before, but they have not had to react to this type of loss for some time. When Wigan have lost previously in big matches, it has usually been in tight encounters, not where they have been bettered in every facet of the game for the entire 80 minutes.

Equally, Salford find themselves in unfamiliar territory. They aren’t used to big games at all, let alone going into them riding on the crest of a wave. It is almost a reversal of positions.

The pre-match discussion in the Wigan dressing room won’t be much of a secret. They will recall that they have negotiated play off series’ successfully many times before. They will recall that St Helens were the favourites to win the title in 2018, but it was Wigan’s name that was engraved on the trophy.

Their dressing room is packed to the brim with champions. With that comes a champion mentality. If Wigan are to win on Friday and go all the way, they need to demonstrate that champion mentality more than ever. To overcome the mother of all hammerings to St Helens and then get to and win the Grand Final would be a flexing of their mental strength.

Salford’s dressing room talk will probably be more motivational. Talk will be rife of the chance to make history. The chance to become legends. The chance to give the Salford fans who stood on a terrace at Hull KR, two minutes away from relegation in 2016, a positive reason to celebrate. Not just celebrating survival.

Maybe they will be playing a clip of Phil Clarke on Sky Sports the other week when he said that on paper Salford are a team of Championship players? If I were Ian Watson, that quote would be posted above every players head as they got changed.

So Friday night is Wigan vs Salford. To frame it another way it is one step closer to a dynasty vs one step closer to history.

Only one will prevail. If the match is half as good as their encounter the other week, then there’s nothing else we would rather be doing with our Friday night.

Team News