The penultimate game of the regular Super League season takes place in France on Saturday afternoon when the Catalans Dragons host the league leaders Castleford Tigers in what should be an entertaining match.
The Dragons know whatever happens here they will be in the qualifiers when Super League returns in two weeks while the Tigers are very much in the Super 8s and huge favourites to top the table at the end of the season.
Catalans Dragons
The Catalans Dragons go into this match off the back of a run of five defeats in their last six matches You don’t need to look too far to see where they are going wrong. In those three matches they have shipped 114pts and it wasn’t too much before that we saw them concede 56pts to the Huddersfield Giants.
In two of the last three weeks they have scored more than 24pts of their own so there is little wrong with their attack but that doesn’t mean a thing if they can’t stop shipping the ridiculous number of points that they are currently conceding. If they can stop that then there are wins there for them in the qualifiers.
Castleford Tigers
The league leaders know all about winning matches. They are on this crazy winning run in the Super League which they will be looking to extend here and after Leeds Rhinos lost on Friday night the Castleford Tigers can open up a huge ten point lead at the top of the table with just seven matches remaining.
The Tigers will also as good as seal a spot in the playoffs with a win here given their massively inferior point difference on the rest of the teams in the league. That point difference is based on them scoring the most points in the division by some 161pts and conceding the fewest by 50. That is a great combination.
Team News
Ben Garcia is back from suspension for the home side so he is straight back into the squad. He comes in for Alrix Da Costa in the only change from the squad which lost at St Helens last week.
Castleford Tigers are without Greg Eden who saw his season end last week. Joel Monaghan is ready to replace him while Matt Cook is back from injury and due to play his first match in quite some time.
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Betting
Usually I don’t like taking Catalans Dragons on in France but the sheer number of points they are conceding makes it a fairly easy decision to oppose them in this match especially given how good the Castleford Tigers have been this season.
They are ruthless in attacking areas but for me the difference in this match could well be with the Tigers’ defence which has improved out of all recognition. I fancy it will repel much of the attacking threat of the Dragons but it is hard to suggest the French defence will do the same to his high class Castleford attacking unit. I’m with Castleford by a good margin here.
Tips
Back Castleford Tigers (-10) to beat Catalans Dragons for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Bet365
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