The Super League weekend concludes on Sunday when the newly crowned World Club Challenge winners St Helens begin their title defence when they make the trip to The Jungle to take on Castleford Tigers.
The Tigers opened up their season with a loss to Hull FC last week but that form was given a bit of a boost on Friday night when Hull knocked off Leeds. St Helens will be in action for the first time since beating Penrith Panthers last weekend.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on Channel 4. The build-up to the match begins at 12.30pm with kick off coming along at 1pm.
Castleford Tigers
No team likes to open a season with a defeat but the Castleford Tigers were probably under pressure from before a ball was kicked with all the fallout from the Joe Westerman video leading into their opening match. They might have been better served to have kept him out of the picture for that starter and waited for all the fuss to die down. It certainly looked like it affected them in the first hour where they offered nothing at either end of the pitch.
To their credit, Castleford did build up a head of steam in the final 20 minutes of the match and almost came from a mile back to steal a win but couldn’t quite repair the damage that had been done. It goes without saying that they are going to need to start a lot quicker here and their defence is going to need to be much tighter than it was a week ago. If they can attack like they did in the last 20 minutes they might have a sniff.
St Helens
There was no hiding away from the fact that St Helens were the standout team in Super League heading into the season anyway, but their heroics in Sydney last week have elevated their status further and now they have to be very close to going down as one of the greatest rugby league teams these shores have ever put together. They won’t want to undo all their hard work from last week by opening up their Super League title defence with a loss but there is an inevitable comedown to overcome.
If there is a slight concern for Saints as well as having to get up to go again after an emotional effort last week was just how physically tough that World Club Challenge was that they played in. The positive is we know St Helens are the best team in the league and there is a chance that they don’t need to be at their very best to get the job done here. If they are even at 75% of what they played at last week they will be very tough to stop.
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Team News
Castleford Tigers could give a debut to Albert Vete after he didn’t actually make his bow in the defeat to Hull FC last week. Gareth Widdop, Jacob Miller and Jack Broadbent could make their home debuts in this clash.
St Helens will have to do without Tommy Makinson who is in the concussion protocol procedure while Agnatius Paasi, James Roby and Will Hopoate picked up knocks in the World Club Challenge and are not risked in this one.
Betting
If St Helens were at full strength I might have chanced them here but I am very aware of the comedown in this match and I would imagine the Castleford Tigers will have had a rocket up them to start this match better and be better defensively. James Roby not probing from dummy half will certainly help the Tigers defensively while Tommy Makinson’s absence leaves Saints having to juggle a few things around in the backs.
That is the strength of this Castleford side and we saw a lot of good things from them offensively last week so if they can improve defensively then there is no reason why they can’t open their home campaign with a win. St Helens are going to have to battle the inevitable comedown from a huge occasion last week not to mention jet lag and emotional fatigue and everything that goes with winning big matches. Castleford are motivated and might just be the value in this one.
Tips
Back Castleford Tigers to beat St Helens for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
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