The final week of the regular Super League season begins on Thursday evening and it does so with a huge clash as the Castleford Tigers welcome the Warrington Wolves to The Jungle in the biggest game of the year for the home side.
The equation is pretty simple for the Tigers. If they win here they will be into the play-offs. If they lose their season is done. The Wolves head across to Yorkshire knowing they will be hosting someone in knockout rugby next week whatever happens here.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Arena channel. The build-up to this huge clash begins at 7pm with the contest kicking off at 7.45pm.
Castleford Tigers
The Tigers got themselves in this mess when they bungled the first chance to secure playoff football last week when they went down to Hull KR, the side who usurped them in the race for the top six which means Castleford are effectively playing knockout rugby here. The good thing for Castleford is that they know what they have to do and they showed in the Challenge Cup earlier in the season that in one-off, high pressure occasions they can come up trumps.
Castleford are going to need to be more clinical this week than they were last week if they are to get the job done. What will have annoyed them as much as anything last week was the fact that they led by a fairly comfortable margin during the second period but couldn’t come up with the defensive plays that would have kept them in front. They also blew a couple of chances to extend their lead and didn’t get away with it. They won’t get away with it here either.
Warrington Wolves
There is an interesting dynamic for the Warrington Wolves in this match. In essence they aren’t playing for anything and would normally be looking ahead to next week but they are playing against the team coached by the man who will be their coach next season, so their players might feel as though they are playing to impress him. Warrington have won three of their last four matches although there wasn’t a whole lot to like about their golden point win over Salford last week.
That might have given us an indication to where the minds of the Warrington players lie. They can’t reach second place now so they are going to be in action next week and even if it is only subconsciously you would think they will be preparing to be at their best then rather than here. The flip side of that is if they lose this it is likely to be Castleford who they play next week so they wouldn’t want the Tigers having a psychological edge on them.
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Team News
Daryl Powell is expected to have talisman Paul McShane back for his final match in charge at The Jungle. Michael Shenton, Grant Millington, Jesse Sene-Lafao, Peter Mata’utia and Oliver Holmes are among those who will be in Castleford colours on this pitch for the final time.
Steve Price has resisted the temptation of filling his 21-man squad with youngsters and resting his stars for next week. He is without Toby King and Matt Davis but Joe Philbin and Mike Cooper come back from injury. Tom Lineham returns from suspension too.
Betting
This will be an emotional night at The Jungle whatever happens here. I hope for the sake of my outright bet that the Castleford Tigers win this match but I have to admit I’m concerned at the way they folded from the front against a Hull KR side who weren’t pulling up any trees prior to last week. That just looked like a team who baulked under the pressure and while they’ll have a home crowd onside here, there is even more pressure on this match.
You get the feeling that the Tigers have been priced up as four point favourites because bookmakers know they need to win but this Warrington Wolves side has some special talent in it and with them able to play with a bit of freedom we might see them express themselves and make this extremely tough for the Tigers. A side that has Stefan Ratchford, Gareth Widdop and George Williams in it looks very strong. Steve Price ensures his team are going to put up a performance to put them in the right place for next week and if he is true to his word and he gets his players up for this the six point start the Wolves are getting might be too big.
Tips
Back Warrington Wolves (+6) to beat Castleford Tigers for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with Betfred
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