Have your say: McDermott concerned over review of McGuire’s tackle
Table-toppers Wigan Warriors yesterday chose the reigning Super League champions as their opponents via the controversial ClubCall rule, opting not to face Challenge Cup winners Warrington, who ended Hull’s season 24-12 on Saturday night.
Warrington will, then, head to Saints in the second semi-final next Saturday having suffered a 28-6 home defeat to the same side in the opening round of the play-offs.
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Hide AdLeeds, who are attempting to win the title from fifth spot for a second successive season, are sweating on the availability of five-time Grand Final winner McGuire.
The England scrum-half was put on report for a high tackle on falling Catalan second-row Louis Anderson during Friday’s epic preliminary semi-final win.
“I’m concerned if he gets called up (to the disciplinary),” admitted McDermott. “Every coach will tell you a player goes in to the tackle trying to achieve certain things.
“Maggsy went in thinking the bloke was going to be a lot taller than what he was when he went into contact – when he ended up being three inches from the deck.
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Hide Ad“I don’t think Maggsy walks on to the field thinking ‘who am I going to bash now?’.
“That’s not Maggsy as a player. I hope some common sense prevails in the review panel.”
On Wigan’s decision to choose his side, McDermott was not surprised.
Shaun Wane’s team have completed the double over them in Super League this term, including a 50-8 thrashing at Headingley in June – the first time a team had put that many points past Leeds in almost 16 years.
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Hide AdConversely, Warrington have defeated the Cherry and Whites twice already this term.
Leeds did, later, defeat Wigan in the Challenge Cup semi-final but McDermott said: “In reality that may count more for Wigan as a form of motivation.
“We won’t read too much into that. That was a result in a different competition.
“What we’ve got to read into is they’ve beaten us twice in the league away and at home, and in good fashion too. It wasn’t a great day for us when they put 50 points past us at Headingley.
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Hide Ad“It’s a big challenge ahead of us and we’ll need one of our best performances of the season.”
Wigan chairman Ian Lenaghan said he had reached the decision along with Wane and general manager Kris Radlinski.
“Neutrals generally, in the main, think Wigan v Warrington would make the best and most apt Grand Final, particularly since Saints and Leeds have had more than their fair share of success over the last few years in Grand Finals,” he said. “So Wigan choose, not surprisingly, Leeds as their opponents in next week’s semi-final to allow the best chance of that happening.
“We look forward to leaving St Helens and Warrington to batter each other in the other and look forward to meeting one of them in the final if we do beat Leeds.”
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Hide AdWhile Wigan and Warrington did, indeed, finish as the top two, Saints are remarkably bidding to reach a seventh consecutive Grand Final while Rhinos – ominously showing their traditional end-of-season form – are seeking a fifth title in only six years.
Qualifying semi-finals: Wigan Warriors v Leeds Rhinos, Friday 8pm; St Helens v Warrington, Saturday 6.15pm.