Last chance saloon for Castleford and Warrington

No more second chances. Castleford, who endured a heavy loss in the Super League play-off qualifiers to St Helens last time out, have an opportunity to put their mistakes right against Cheshire club Warrington, who edged past rivals Widnes.

Thanks to finishing in the top two, the Tigers have a lifeline, and are 6/4 to overcome the Wolves in front of what will be a capacity home crowd at the Jungle, which could make all the difference. However, Warrington, equipped with Super League top try-scorer Joel Monaghan are odds-on favourites at 8/15.

Castleford scrum-half Liam Finn has insisted there can be no more mistakes, and must rediscover the art of winning knockout rugby league after losing to Leeds Rhinos in the Challenge Cup Final, and then being embarrassed 41-0 against St Helens.

“The top teams find a way to come good at this time of year and we need to do that pretty quickly,” he said.

“We must take a leaf out of their book if we want to progress our season this week. The simple fact of the matter is there has to be a marked improvement,” Finn, who is 4/1 to cross anytime in the match, continued.

“We need to find something for Thursday to deliver a good performance and we’ve spoken about not wanting to ruin a good season and have a lasting memory of the way we finish like this (Saints defeat). As a team we don’t deserve that. The fans certainly don’t. We feel we’ve produced an entertaining style this year and we want to finish with them thinking about us in that manner.

“We were in the game for the first half at Saints and did a lot of things right. But then we pushed the pass and made a couple of wrong choices to go in 13-0 down.

“The last 30 minutes, though, were just not up to standard at all. We dropped off completely and it was nowhere near good enough.”

Opponents Warrington are aiming to reach their third Grand Final in a row and, with the help of Monaghan whose hat-trick inspired the Wolves to a win against the Vikings, certainly have a fantastic chance. The centre is 11/2 to breach the in-goal area first.