It’s first vs third as ‘The Entertainers’ travel to ‘Classy Cas’. Here’s everything you need to know.
TEAM FORM GUIDE
Castleford Tigers
Castleford currently sit at third in the table with only one loss which was away to Warrington. Last week they got back to winning ways as they crept past a tricky Salford side to beat them 24-20.
St Helens
St Helens are currently unbeaten with six wins out of six. Last week they convincingly beat Huddersfield 40-12 despite not being as fluent in attack as they have been in previous weeks.
SQUAD NEWS
Castleford Tigers
Darryl Powell makes just one change to his side with Grant Millington returning from a two match suspension for fighting. He replaces Jacques O’Neill. Meanwhile Ben Roberts has left the club by mutual consent.
Castleford Tigers 19-man squad: 1. Peter Mata’utia, 2. James Clare 3. Greg Minikin 4. Michael Shenton 5. Greg Eden 6. Jake Trueman 8. Liam Watts 9. Paul McShane 10. Grant Millington 11. Oliver Holmes 13. Adam Milner 14. Nathan Massey 15. Jesse Sene-Lefao 16. Junior Moors 17. Alex Foster 25. Tuoyo Egodo 32. Jordan Rankin 33. Chris Clarkson.
St Helens
Six wins from six means that Justin Holbrook has no reason to change anything. Therefore he goes with an unchanged squad from Huddersfield for the game at Wheldon Road.
St Helens 19-man squad: 1. Jonny Lomax 2. Tommy Makinson 3. Kevin Naiqama 4. Mark Percival 5. Regan Grace, 6. Theo Fages 8. Alex Walmsley 9. James Roby 10. Luke Thompson 11. Zeb Taia 12. Joseph Paulo 13. Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook 15. Morgan Knowles 16. Kyle Amor 17. Dom Peyroux 19. Matty Lees 20. Jack Ashworth 21. Aaron Smith 23. Lachlan Coote.
HEAD TO HEAD
Castleford and St Helens have been involved in some truly memorable clashes in recent years. Classics have included Saints scoring three tries to win in the last fifteen minutes in 2014, a last minute drop goal from Ben Roberts in 2015 and who could forget an extra time drop goal from Luke Gale to send Cas to their first ever Grand Final.
Last season Saints had the upper hand as they beat Cas four times over season with an aggregate of 172-42.
KEY BATTLE
Liam Watts (Castleford Tigers) v Alex Walmsley (St Helens)
The English national side are shy in the quality of forwards. On Friday night there will be two forwards who will both be eyeing up a plane seat for this autumn’s Lions tour. Liam Watts always seems to be on the brink of an international call up while Alex Walmsley will be hoping to regain a spot after missing last year’s series against New Zealand through injury.
Watts has started the season well making 751 metres so far. His biggest asset so far and which sets him apart from many props in Super League is his offloading game. This season he has the second most offloads with 15, behind Trent Merrin who has 19.
Alex Walmsley is part of a formidable front row and has struck up an impressive partnership with fellow England international, Luke Thompson. These two with their bursting runs have so far set a platform for James Roby from dummy half. No one was really sure how Walmsley would come back from his neck injury but it’s been so far so good for the big man.
THE IMPORTANT DETAILS
Date: 22/03/19
Venue: The Mend-A-Hose Jungle
Kick-off: 19:45
Referee: James Child
WHO WILL WIN?
Saints have to slip up at some point and this game away to Castleford is their toughest game. They will have to be much better than last week but I think home advantage could just prove to be the difference.
