St Helens v Wigan Warriors: Kick-off, TV, live stream, team news, new rules
Super League gets underway tonight as champions Wigan travel to derby rivals St Helens but where can you watch it, who's likely to play and what will be different this year?
SUPER League’s ‘new beginning’ gets underway tonight when champions Wigan head to fierce rivals St Helens for what could be a brilliant derby.
And it is not without its subplots already, especially after the Warriors were docked two points for breaching the salary cap in 2017.
Wigan’s new coach Adrian Lam starts his stint and can Zak Hardaker start making headlines on the pitch again after serving a 14-month drugs ban?
Can St Helens cope after losing Steve Prescott Man of Steel Ben Barba? Can Lachlan Coote and Kevin Naiqama fill the void?
And how will the England players do after helping the country see off New Zealand last year? Take Saints’ Tommy Makinson, Luke Thompson, James Roby and Jonny Lomax and add Wigan’s Sean O’Loughlin and George Williams plus the likes of Hardaker, Alex Walmsley, Tom Davies and Sam Powell.
But where can you watch he big kick-off and what’s the team news? Here’s SunSport’s guide to tonight’s game.
WHAT TIME IS KICK-OFF?
ST HELENS v Wigan will start at 7.45pm.
WHERE CAN I WATCH IT?
THE GAME will be shown live on Sky Sports Arena and Sky Sports Mix, with coverage starting at 6.30pm with build-up show Super League Golden Point.
CAN I LIVE STREAM IT?
YOU CAN tune in online by watching it through a .
WHAT’S THE TEAM NEWS?
SAINTS boss Justin Holbrook will give debuts to Coote, Naiqama and Joseph Paulo while Wigan will be without the suspended Jarrod Sammut and winger Dom Manfredi because of a knee problem.
St Helens squad: Lomax, Makinson, Naiqama, Percival, Grace, Fages, Richardson, Walmsley, Roby, Thompson, Taia, Paulo, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Knowles, Amor, Peyroux, Lees, Ashworth, Coote.
Wigan squad: Bullock, Clubb, Davies, Escare, Farrell, Flower, Gildart, Greenwood, Hamlin, Hardaker, Isa, Leuluai, Marshall, Navarrete, O’Loughlin, Powell, Sarginson, Tautai, Williams.
WILL ANYTHING BE DIFFERENT THIS YEAR?
SUPER League has introduced a raft of rule changes, the biggest of which being golden point extra time if a match is drawn after 80 minutes and a shot clock.
Sides get five minutes each way to try and decide a game if the scores are level with the first one to score winning.
And they will be penalised of they fail to form a scrum inside 35 seconds or take a goal-line dropout within 30 seconds.
The rules, used in the NRL, are designed to speed games up after 80 minute clashes sometimes took more than two hours to complete.
The number of interchanges a side can make has also been cut for 2019 from 10 to eight.
