Castleford Tigers will be looking to bounce back from back to back defeats when they play host to the Warrington Wolves in round 14 of the Betfred Super League.
TEAM FORM GUIDE
Castleford Tigers
Castleford head into the game against Warrington on the back of two consecutive losses against the Catalans Dragons and Wigan Warriors respectively.
However, they will have an added boost against the Wolves with new signing and former Melbourne Storm centre Cheyse Blair set to make his Tigers debut.
The Tigers have won seven game in the 2019 season and after five of their opening games they had one of the best defences in the league having conceded just 28 points. They have slipped though over the past four weeks and now have a points difference of just +20.
Warrington Wolves
‘It’s always their year’ those words are muttered by Super League fans every year, however a strong off season when it came to signings gives Warrington a very real chance of lifting the Super League trophy at Old Trafford come October.
The Wolves sit second in the ladder behind run away leaders St Helens and Steve Prices’s men have lost just three games in 2019 to Catalans, St Helens and most recently the Salford Red Devils.
Unlike the Tigers they have recorded back to back wins over relegation battlers Hull KR and Huddersfield Giants.
SQUAD NEWS
Castleford Tigers
Head coach Daryl Powell has made just one change to his 19 man squad that started in the eventual loss to the Wigan Warriors with Cheyse Blair coming in to replace injured winger James Clare.
Castleford 19-man squad: 24. Cory Aston 35. Cheyse Blair 21. Mitch Clark 34. Chris Clarkson 5. Greg Eden 25. Tuoyo Egodo 23. Will Maher 14. Nathan Massey 1. Peter Mata’utia 12. Mike McMeeken 9. Paul McShane 13. Adam Milner 3. Greg Minikin 29. Jacques O’neill 28. Lewis Peachey 16. Daniel Smith 6. Jake Trueman 18. Calum Turner 8. Liam Watts
Warrington Wolves
Steve Price makes two changes to his match day squad with Jason Clark and Ryan Atkins return to the mix in place of Ben Murdoch-Masila and Tom Lineham.
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Warrington 19-man squad: 19. Sitaleki Akauola 4. Ryan Atkins 6. Blake Austin 5. Josh Charnley 9. Daryl Clark 14. Jason Clark 10. Mike Cooper 11. Ben Currie 23. Matt Davis 3. Bryson Goodwin 8. Chris Hill 12. Jack Hughes 18. Toby King 20. Harvey Livett 15. Declan Patton 17. Joe Philbin 1. Stefan Ratchford 16. Lama Tasi 34. Ben Westwood
HEAD TO HEAD
The two sides have already met this season back in round five of Super League with the Wolves coming away convincing 24-10 victors at the Halliwell Jones Stadium with Jake Mamo scoring a brace alongside Jack Hughes and Ben Murdoch Masila.
Greg Eden and Greg Minikin went over for the Tigers as they slipped to their first defeat of the season.
KEY BATTLE
Cheyse Blair (Castleford Tigers) v Blake Austin (Warrington)
Cheyse Blair is set to make his Castleford Tigers debut against the Warrington Wolves and will go face to face with a foe from a ‘land down under’ in the form of Blake Austin.
Both players have performed well in the NRL over the past few years, but Austin has made a good transition to Super League after joining the Wolves from the Canberra Raiders. Austins work ethic is second to none and has been the catalyst to Warrington’s success so far in 2019.
Meanwhile, Blair will bring some added strength and experience to the centres at Castleford and could play a key part in the rest of the Tigers fortunes in 2019 and their chance’s of getting to Old Trafford once again.
THE IMPORTANT DETAILS
Date: Friday 3rd May
Venue: Mend A Hose Jungle
Kick-off: 7:45pm
Referee: Chris Kendall
WHO WILL WIN?
Warrington by 12
