Tigers ready to pounce for top spot if St Helens slip up

All eyes in Castleford will be firmly fixed on the match between St Helens and Huddersfield prior their away game at Catalan, so those fans that have stayed in West Yorkshire and haven’t travelled to the south of France will watch hooked.

It is perhaps unfortunate that the two games don’t take place at the same time, though the Tigers are narrow outsiders at 6/5 to beat the Dragons, who are odds-on at 4/6. If Castleford are to win, they will have to keep a close eye on Dragons’ stand-out player Morgan Escare, who is 6/1 to cross the whitewash first.

However, the side from Wheldon Road have threats of their own, and Luke Dorn could prove the difference, being 9/1 to record the first four points of the match. Coach Daryl Powell, who has also steered the Tigers to a Challenge Cup final appearance against Leeds Rhinos is well aware of the significance of the match.

“We don’t know just how much is going to be there to play for,” Powell said. “It depends on what happens with Huddersfield and St Helens, but we’ll know exactly what we’ve got to do.

“It’s amazing we’re in this position with one game to go that we’re the only team that’s capable of matching Saints and finishing top. We just need to make it a little bit more amazing,” he continued.

“It’s been an incredible effort from all the players and coaching staff to get us to this point and it’s how we go about it now.

“If Saints win and we end up in second it will still be a great achievement without a doubt. For us to be in the top eight was doubted a little bit at the start of the year, but we’ve been consistent and tough, the players have been superb throughout and whoever has grabbed hold of a shirt has done a great job for us.

“But if Saints do lose it would give us that extra motivation. The Castleford club has never finished top of the competition so for this team to be able to do it would be massive.

“We were always walking in other people’s footsteps in the Challenge Cup, which has been special for us even though we didn’t get the job done in the end. But this is new territory if we could do this and I can’t say how special that would be for us.”