The Super League season is really getting into crucial territory now and the latest round of matches could go further to deciding the path of many teams. It all begins with the clash between Castleford and Widnes at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle on Thursday evening.
Castleford are clinging on to the coattails of the top four by the slenderest of threads while Widnes are trying to fight off the cavalry charge of those below to remain in the top eight places to secure Super League rugby for next season so there is lots at stake here.
Castleford
The Tigers have been in decent form in recent times even allowing for their loss to Wigan a couple of weeks ago. They rebounded from that with a huge win over Huddersfield last week so they will go into this one confident of picking up two more valuable points.
When they are on song there probably isn’t a better side to watch in the entire league than Castleford and if they are to make the playoffs from here they will need to be on song a lot more than not with matches beginning to run out.
Widnes
When you look back on this season for Widnes this is very much one that has got away. Having come out of the blocks like a greyhound out of the traps there was talk of them being Super League’s ‘Leicester’ at Easter when they led the table but nine defeats in 10 matches since then had been quite a decline.
There was some solace a couple of weeks ago when they ended a winless streak with a win over Huddersfield and the fact they came from behind to win that match was encouraging but then they were well beaten by Hull FC last week so we don’t truly know what to make of the Vikings at present.
Team News
Castleford have brought Larne Patrick back into the squad after he was ineligible last week. He has since signed permanently from Huddersfield and he comes in for Ryan Hampshire. Ben Roberts is out for the season.
Widnes welcome Patrick Ah Van back into the squad in place of Stefan Marsh who picked up an injury against Hull FC last week. Aaron Heremaia is also back after missing a couple of matches through injury.
Betting
On current form you can’t look past Castleford in this match but although they are a side who win matches they don’t win many matches going away so I’m slightly concerned with that with regards to backing the Tigers on a handicap where they have to cover 10pts.
They might well do it but Widnes do score points and Castleford are quite leaky at times so there is enough doubt in that to put me off taking them with the cap and I’m no player of 4/11 shots which is their current match odds.
Instead it may well pay to take advantage of the fact that Widnes score points and get stuck into the total points line here. The line is the generic 48.5 one and their last three meetings have all sailed safely over that with totals of 62, 54 and 58pts. Just the style of these two leads to points being scored and on a perfect night for rugby I’m expecting the points to get racked up quickly here.
Tips
WON – Back Over 48.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.90 with 888sport
Back it here:
