Peter Smith: There just hasn’t been a Super League season as intriguing as this one

Hull KR's Danny McGuire in action against Leeds Rhinos.

ONE OF the arguments against the now defunct Super-8s format was it caused too much uncertainty.

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Critics claimed it meant four Super League clubs went into the final eight games of the season not knowing whether they would still be in the top flight the following year.

Joe Arundel scores for Wakefield against Hull.

Ironic then that the eights was axed to make way for automatic relegation of the bottom club and, in the first year of that system, five teams are in peril with only four rounds remaining.

There has never been a Super League season like it. At the start of round 25, St Helens are 14 points clear of second-placed Warrington Wolves.

Warrington sit an equal distance ahead of bottom side London Broncos, but every other team from third-placed Hull downwards is nearer the foot of the table than the top.

Take Saints out of it and it’s quite exciting, with only four points separating Warrington from seventh-placed Catalans Dragons.

Brad Dwyer celebrates scoring against Hull KR.

Other than Saints, everyone else in the leading seven has something to play for, either a high finish to give them home advantage or lifeline in the play-offs, or to quality for the semi-finals series.

Below that, the bottom five are all battling against dropping into the Betfred Championship, with Leeds in eighth being only four points clear of London who remain favourites to go down, though nobody would bet their house on it.

So, this year every game really does matter, at one end of the table or the other. This weekend is a good example. Saints have nothing to play for, but Leeds could make themselves safe, more or less, if they beat them tomorrow.