Magic Weekend: Injury-hit Cru v. Huddersfield Giants

The Celtic Crusaders travel to Murrayfield for Rugby League's magic weekend with yet more injury problems. John Dixon's men must produce a superb performance if they are to overturn the Huddersfield Giants with the Crusaders missing a host of key names. Can Cru’s Super League losing streak come to an end on Scottish soil?

Cru's match is the fourth of seven rugby league matches that will take place at Murrayfield over the weekend. The battle with the Giants kicks off Sunday's action as RL supporters from all over the place journey to the Scottish capital.

For the Cru faithful, it's disappointing to see this eagerly-anticipated weekend event moved away from Cardiff's Millennium Stadium. Over 30,000 fans have been at Cardiff's showpiece stadium for the last two seasons and Cru could have expected unusually high levels of support had it taken place on the Brewery Field's doorstep.

Dixon's men are, of course, no strangers to the Magic Weekend. Games at the Brewery Field were used as "curtain raisers" to the big event in both 2007 and 2008. Two years ago, 3,441 watched Oldham Roughyeds win 34-26 as live Sky Sports cameras hit the Brewery Field; whilst last year 6,152 watched Cru beat Featherstone Rovers.

The small band of travelling Cru fans who will journey to Edinburgh will desperately hope that the team's woeful run of form comes to an end. Cru are six points adrift at the bottom of Super League after ten straight defeats whilst Challenge Cup hopes were dashed at New Craven Park weeks ago. The Super League us certainly proving to be a baptism of fire for the Crusaders.

If fortunes are to change against Huddersfield, Cru will need to find success against the odds. The Giants - who thumped us 30-10 earlier in the season - would be clear favourites anyway; but Cru are without a host of big names once again.

Tony Duggan, Adam Peek and Darren Mapp all miss out whilst Marshall Chalk is the latest name in the treatment room after breaking his jaw against Castleford. He faces two to three months on the sidelines! Reports claim Mark Lennon and Matty Smith are nearing fitness - but neither have been named in Cru's Magic Weekend squad.

We can't even hope that the Giants will be overly complacent. Huddersfield assistant coach Paul Anderson has delivered a clear warning to his players this week about the threat that rock bottom Cru may pose the Yorkshire outfit.

It's going to be a big, big ask - but hopefully Cru can upset the odds, build on the first-half display against Castleford and finally break that elite division duck. Come on Saders!!