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Brian Carney: Good week for Halifax, bad week for Salford

Gareth Hock (centre) celebrates his try against Warrington with Glenn Stewart (L), Micky Higham and Ben Crooks
Image: It has been a good week for the Leigh Centurions

Brian Carney reflects on the final round of regular season Super League and Championship action before the Super 8s and Qualifers get underway.

Good week

Halifax

Going into the final round of both the Championship and Super League the big story was who will take the final top four in the Championship, was it going to be Toulouse or was it going to be Halifax?

It couldn't have been a much more thrilling finish to the regular season rounds with Toulouse winning at the death on Saturday against Featherstone to put all the pressure on Halifax to get a result against league leaders Hull Kingston Rovers.

Featherstone Rovers v Halifax RLFC - The LD Nutrition Stadium, Featherstone, England  - Scott Murrell gives the thumbs up to the fans.
Image: Scott Murrell acknowledges the Halifax fans as they cemented their place in the Championship top four

They still had to go out and win the game and Hull KR will obviously put more effort into the games they have got coming up in the Super 8s qualifiers but I don't want that to detract too much from what Halifax have done.

For the club financially it is a massive win for them. They have built their season on being one of the best defensively and there is no better foundations to put into your side so well done to Richard Marshall and well done to Halifax.

Leigh Centurions

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We had Micky Higham as our guest in the Sky Sports Studios on Thursday night and he said that the mood in their camp was quietly confident that they had the playing resources to make sure that they are in Super League in 2018.

They went out and displayed that with a performance against a strong Salford side that suggests a little bit of consistency will see Leigh as a growing strength in Super League in years to come.

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Highlights of the Betfred Super League fixture between Leigh Centurions and Salford Red Devils

You can absolutely believe they have plenty to play for in that game because stumbling into the Qualifiers on the back of poor performances and losses is to be avoided at all costs and they have done that.

St Helens

Watch out, here they come! Their results and performances in recent weeks should have everybody, the brilliant Castleford included, looking over their shoulders with a degree of trepidation.

To win at Wakefield scoring 41 considering the season Trinity have had and to do it without Ben Barba, who is going to make his first appearance for Saints in the Qualifiers and Matty Smith who should be returning from injury then too, marks St Helens out as a rejuvenated force in Super League.

St Helens scrum-half Matty Smith
Image: St Helens scrum-half Matty Smith is expected to return from injury in time to feature in the Super 8s

They may yet provide the most remarkable story of the season.

Bad week

Toulouse

It is a bad week in the sense that it will be a very disappointing end to a very positive season. It is a really tough place to be in when you see your season ending with you missing out by just a point on the top four.

It can feel like the whole season was in vain and that it is a mountain you have to climb again to put yourself in a similar position.

It is important that they don't contextualise this as a mountain. They have made huge steps forward as a club.

 Summer Bash - Halifax RLFC v Toulouse Olympique - Bloomfield Road, Blackpool, England 
Halifax's tackled by Toulouse's Mourab Kriouache
Image: Mourab Kriouache on the attack for Toulouse in what has been a positive season for the club

We all miss out really on seeing a Toulouse v Catalans match in the Qualifiers and what sort of crowd that would have brought which I think would have intrigued anybody who is a fan of expanding the game.

Plenty of clubs in the Qualifiers would be pleased they don't now have to do a second trip to France. They had so much going for them Toulouse so it will be a disappointing end but they really need to put it in the context of a brilliant season.

Bad week, brilliant year.

Wakefield

It has been a bad week for Wakefield with that defeat to St Helens. Stadium issues rumble on at the club.

We all know money isn't freely available to spend and the opportunity for an extra home game in the Super 8s and the revenue that brings would be huge for the club. So to be in a position that all you have to do is not lose to St Helens by more than 15 points and you guarantee yourself four home games.

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Wakefield slip out of the Top 4 going into the Super 8s as St Helens make it 3 wins in a row

It is a tremendous position and to think from that position they have managed to lose by more than that mark and end up with three home games and four away will be very disappointing. They finish in fifth when they really could have had third this week.

They can turn around and say nobody expected us to be top eight let alone top five and that is very true but I think with the season they have had their markers are continually adjusting upwards.

So yes this side should be disappointed and classing this as bad week for losing to St Helens by so much.

Salford

It is six of the last seven they have lost now. They sent out a strong team against Leigh and while they have made the top four and some may see that as mission accomplished they have got a Challenge Cup semi-final against Wigan this weekend and if they lose that they go into Super 8s with the worst run of form of any of the clubs.

Manu Vatuvei had successful spell at the New Zealand Warriors
Image: Manu Vatuvei will be hoping to inspire an upturn in form for Salford

On the plus side for them, they are bolstered by Tyrone McCarthy and Manu Vatuvei who may make his first appearance on these shores in the Challenge Cup semi-final.

Can 'the Beast' inspire Salford and ensure that just making the top eight isn't all their season is remembered for.

Much like Wakefield, it would be very disappointing for any neutral observer to see the brilliant seasons of Trinity and the Red Devils fade away.

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