Super League decamps to Newcastle for the Magic Weekend as all sides are in action over two days with matched being played at St James’ Park, the home of Newcastle United.

After a curtain raiser between Toronto Wolfpack and Toulouse Olympique XIII at 12:45 on Saturday the top flight action gets underway at 15:00 with Widnes Vikings v. St Helens. At 17:15 Wigan Warriors play the Warrington Wolves and the final game of the day kicks off at 19:30 with a 2017 Grand Final replay between the Castleford Tigers and Leeds Rhinos.

On Sunday afternoon the 13:00 fixture sees the Salford Red Devils take on the Catalans Dragons. At 15:15 Wakefield Trinity play the Huddersfield Giants and the final game of a busy weekend is between Hull KR and Hull FC at 17:30.

Widnes Vikings are big underdogs against Saints but will be boosted by the inclusion of Patrick Ah Van, Danny Craven and Joe Mellor as tenth place takes on the league leaders. Saints will be without the services of Kyle Amor who picked up a one match ban at the disciplinary committee on Tuesday and he is replaced by Matty Lees. Saints are 1/14 for the win while you can get a very generous 8/1 on Widnes. Referee Liam Moore takes charge.

Saturdays other two game look likely to be much closer affairs.

Skipper Sean O’Loughlin is missing for the Warriors and is replaced in the squad by Morgan Escare. George Williams, who missed out last weekend with an injured wrist, and Josh Woods are also back in the squad to take on the Warrington Wolves. The Wolves are on a tremendous run of results which has lifted them into third spot, just two league points behind the Warriors. They have named an unchanged squad from the one that hammered Toronto in last Sunday’s ill-tempered meeting in the Cup. Wigan are slight favourites with the bookies. Robert Hicks is in the middle

The final game of the afternoon is a Grand Final rematch with Castleford and Leeds battling out for fourth place in the overnight standings. The bookies have the Rhinos as slight favourites as they welcome back Brett Delaney and Ryan Hall, the latter after dislocating his shoulder in the loss to the Wolves a fortnight ago. Cameron Smith is also in the squad and replaced Josh Walters. Coach Powell has made just one change to his squad for the Newcastle trip with Kieran Gill replacing Gadwin Springer. Chris Kendall takes charge.

Salford are slight favourites to overcome the bottom of the table side the Catalans Dragons, despite the latter making cup progress last weekend. Gareth Hewer will be in charge of the game as Salford hope to extend their cushion in eight place and inflict further misery on the Dragons who are now looking a near certainty for the middle eights. The Dragons have lost in their last two games against Salford.

The two old enemies are thrown together in the 15:15 game as the Giants take on Trinity with Wakefield being the favourites to pick up the points. There are only two places separating the two sides in the league table, but a massive five points. The Giants have the second worst attack in the league in terms of points scored and by far the leakiest defence.  James Child will be in the middle.

The weekend draws to a close with a heavily depleted Hull FC taking on their nearest neighbours Hull KR in a fourth versus eleventh battle which sees the Black & Whites as slight favourites due to their massive selection issues. FC have signed half back Liam Harris from Doncaster and enticed Kirk Yeaman out of retirement to give themselves some cover for a threadbare squad. Ben Thaler will be the one wielding any necessary cards, although the Airlie Birds will be hoping that they won’t be being flashed in their direction.

In addition to the Toronto v. Toulouse Magic Weekend curtain raiser, there is a full weekend of Championship and Championship One action.

Featherstone and Leigh have a crucial game at 18:00 on Saturday evening with a win being massively important for both sides on their push for a top four finish. The remainder of the games are 15:00 kick-offs on Sunday with; Batley v. Rochdale, Halifax v. Dewsbury, London v. Sheffield and Swinton v. Barrow.

Championship One is spread across three days as follows;

Friday

19:45 Newcastle v. Bradford

Saturday

15:00 London v. Whitehaven

15:00 West Wales v. Oldham

Sunday

14:30 North Wales v. Keighley

15:00 Coventry v. Workington

15:00 Doncaster v. Hunslet

15:00 York v. Hemel

Wherever you are watching your rugby this weekend, enjoy.