Leigh Centurions v Batley Bulldogs Championship Grand Final Tips & Predictions

Everything is on the line for Leigh Centurions and Batley Bulldogs in Sunday’s Championship Grand Final.

The winner of the Grand Final – which will be held at the Leigh Sports Village with a 18:30 BST kick-off – will be granted promotion to Super League with the loser remaining in the Championship.

Leigh have the home advantage after finishing top of the league ladder with 52 points thanks to 26 wins and just one defeat.

During that time Leigh scored 1306 points, which included 100 in a single match against York.

York were the visitors in the semi-final as Leigh ran out comfortable 70-10 winners to book a place in the Grand Final with Blake Ferguson scoring a hat-trick.

Batley qualified for the play-offs after finishing fifth on the table with 17 wins, eight defeats and two draws.

Batley’s defeat on the final day of the regular season, saw them slip from fourth to fifth, which meant they would have to travel to Barrow rather than host the Raiders in their Eliminator.

The Bulldogs advanced with a narrow 18-8 win over Barrow to set up a semi-final tie away at Featherstone Rovers.

Fev were expected to steamroll Batley and set up a Grand Final between the top two teams. The Bulldogs had other ideas as they recorded a famous 32-26 win.

The meeting on Sunday will be the third time the two sides have faced each other this year. They met in Round 11 at Batley’s Fox’s Biscuits Stadium. Keanan Brand scored a first half as the Centurions kept Batley scoreless during the 52-0 success.

Leigh then hosted Batley on the final day of the season. Leigh once again produced a dominant performance with the Leythers scoring 11 tries during the 64-6 victory.

With myself being a Wigan fan, I never really want Leigh to do well, but credit where it’s due. The Centurions have been amazing this season – yes, they have some quality players that other teams cannot afford, but that is not their problem.

With players like Ferguson, Josh Charnley, Krisnan Inu, Joe Mellow, Lachlan Lam, Edwin Ipape and Nene MacDonald, they would give most Super League teams a run for their money.

It would be great if Batley could pull off a massive upset, but Leigh have too much class and this could end up being a walkover.

Back the Centurions to win the game and gain promotion. I expect them to win by 46-50 points. That should never be a winning margin in a Grand Final, but Leigh are that good.