Castleford Tigers target mental toughness in pre-season reveals Mata'utia

Kallum Watkins’ testimonial game will come three days after Tigers return from a warm-weather training camp in Lanzarote.

And Mata’utia – signed midway through last year from Leigh Centurions – insisted they will be ready to rip in and prove a hard pre-season has paid off.

“We’ve been working sort of more defensive, trying to get us mentally stronger,” Mata’utia revealed.

“The last couple of years Cas have lost big games and just haven’t played the same in these games.

“The boys have been digging in and I’m excited for the Leeds trial match.

“I really want to win this game and want to get off to a great start heading into round one.”

Tigers finished third in Betfred Super League last season, but were beaten at Wigan Warriors in a play-offs semi-final.

Jordan Rankin, signed from Huddersfield Giants in exchange for Joe Wardle, is their only new face, but Mata’utia is upbeat about Castleford’s prospects.

“We’ve got a lot of young kids who have been training with us and they’ve been doing a good job,” he said.

“I think we’ll be up there again. We have a good chance of being in that Grand Final this year despite Galey [Luke Gale] being injured.

“Coming off the back of last year when there were so many injuries and we still finished third, we have to have a chance.

“It’s going to be tough, especially at the start of the year and we’ve got a hard game in round one with Catalans coming off some good form last year, but I believe we can make it.”

Gale is set to miss the entire season after suffering a ruptured Achilles tendon. Mata’utia said: “It’s a massive blow to lose Galey and I was looking forward to playing with him, but we’d been training as though he wouldn’t be there for the start of the season.

“I’ve got confidence that with Truey [Jake Trueman] and whoever Powelly [coach Daryl Powell] decides to put in there we’ll get the job done.”