All eyes will be on Wigan on Friday night as they look to take advantage of any Leeds slip ups in the hunt for the Super League leaders shield.
Wigan host Castleford at the DW Stadium knowing if they better Leeds’ result on the night they will land their first piece of silverware of the season and they will assure themselves of a home semi-final next week. Castleford are playing for pride but they shouldn’t be written off.
Wigan suffered derby heartache last week when Josh Jones’ try mugged them of a win late on and they will need to have recovered from that not just physically but emotionally in order to get the win they need here.
Castleford spoiled Leeds’ party last week and now they will aim to do the same to Wigan this week. This is an exciting side to watch when they play well as we saw last week and with nothing to lose I expect them to put on a bit of a show in this match.
Warriors coach Shaun Wane will be pleased to have Dom Manfredi and Liam Farrell back after they missed the derby last week. That will boost his squad in the key areas and provide two fresh pairs of legs which could be important.
Castleford go into this encounter without Michael Shenton which isn’t ideal from their point of view but in Luke Gale and Ben Roberts they have a half back combination in great form and that will serve them well here.
We saw on Thursday night how St Helens were flat and that has to be down to the physicality of the derby and that could easily happen to Wigan too. Those matches take a lot of getting over and Wigan haven’t had long to get over it.
On the flip side Castleford ran riot at Headingley and will be buzzing going into this match. They also had the extra 24hrs to recover from any niggles for this match and I see no reason why they won’t be up for this even with nothing to play for.
You’d be a brave man to back Castleford to win the game but this is all about winning for Wigan not covering a huge handicap so I’m more than happy to side with the Tigers with a 16pt gift from the outset.
Back Castleford (+16) to beat Wigan for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Skybet
Blog RL YTD: +16.99pts
