Castleford Tigers host London Broncos at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle and will hope to break their two game losing run, while the visitors try to make it four wins in a row.
TEAM FORM GUIDE
Castleford Tigers
Castleford Tigers come into this one off the back of two losses that followed a golden point win against Huddersfield. They now sit just two points off the playoff spots in 7th place.
London Broncos
London are in their best form this season and have now won three on the bounce against St Helens, Catalans, and Hull KR to pull themselves off the bottom of the table and six points away from the playoff spots.
SQUAD NEWS
Castleford Tigers
Junior Moors is replaced by Will Maher after suffering a suspected fractured hip last time out against Salford, while London academy product, Tuoyo Egodo takes Greg Eden’s spot in the 19-man squad just a week after Eden was a late exclusion against Salford.
Castleford Tigers 19-man squad: Aston, Blair, Clare, Clarkson, Cook, Egodo, Maher, Massey, Mata’utia, McMeeken, McShane, Millington, Milner, Minikin, Rankin, Sene-Lefao, Smith, Trueman, Watts
London Broncos
London Broncos also name a largely unchanged 19-man squad with Nathan Mason making way for Will Lovell as the only change.
London Broncos 19-man squad:ย Abdull, Battye, Butler, Cunningham, Dixon, Fozard, Gee, Hellewell, Ioane, Kear, Krasniqi, Lovell, Morgan, Pitts, Richards, Smith, Walker, Williams, Yates.
HEAD TO HEAD
The head-to-head between the two sides is nearly as even as it can get, with Castleford having won 5 of the last 10, Broncos with 3 wins and two games shared between the two sides. Similarly, the two sides are three-a-piece when playing at Castleford.
KEY BATTLE
Jordan Abdull (London Broncos) v Jake Trueman (Castleford Tigers)
Jordan Abdull comes into the clash off the back of two three-point Man Of Steel performances in his last two games and is proving a vital part of London Broncos good performances even when he doesn’t get on the leader board. By contrast, Trueman has achieved half as many points as Abdull over the whole season and has struggled to guide his side over the past couple of games.
Sunday’s key battle presents an interesting comparison of two play makers in seemingly polarised patches of form and ultimately the player who is able to control the game with both kicking and attacking shape will go a long way to getting the win for his side. Expect Trueman to bounce back off the back of a dominant pack, however if London’s forwards stick in the game it would be no surprise to see an Abdull masterclass.
THE IMPORTANT DETAILS
Date:ย Sunday 30th June
Venue:ย Mend-A-Hose-Jungle
Kick-off:ย 15:30 BST
Referee:ย M.Griffiths
WHO WILL WIN?
London will travel to the Mend-A-Hose Jungle in high spirits to take on a somewhat out-of-sorts Castleford team and the gulf in confidence may just get the Broncos over the line, however it’s hard to look away from Castleford bouncing back to winning ways at home.ย Castleford by 8.ย
