Castleford Tigers v Wakefield Trinity: Orr alert to threat posed by neighbours Wakefield

CASTLEFORD TIGERS' recent dominance over Wakefield Trinity will mean nothing tonight, their assistant-boss Danny Orr has warned.
Danny Orr.Danny Orr.
Danny Orr.

Tigers are on a nine-game winning run against their near-neighbours, but several recent encounters have been close and Castleford scraped a five-point victory less than a month ago.

According to Orr, Tigers are geared up for another thriller and he believes if Trinity play the way they can, Castleford will have their hands full.

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“It’d be nice to keep up our record against them, but it’s another game,” Orr said. “All that’s gone before has gone, it’s what’s next that matters.

Jesse Sene-Lefao.Jesse Sene-Lefao.
Jesse Sene-Lefao.

“They are tough games, really tough ones – especially when they come here. They seem to raise their game. They will be a bit down on themselves. The St Helens win was great for them, but they backed up with their worst performance of the season against Salford last week.

“They’ll be wanting to put a few of their wrongs right and put in a good performance against us, and it is all set up to be a good game.”

Wakefield won their opening four games in Betfred Super League, but have lost five of their last six – the exception being a home win over leaders St Helens two weeks ago.

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“I like them, I like what they are doing this year,” Orr said of tonight’s visitors. “They’ve got some big forwards, but they like to throw the ball around.

Jesse Sene-Lefao.Jesse Sene-Lefao.
Jesse Sene-Lefao.

“They like to play, which I am a big believer in. I think you should pass the ball and look for space and create space, and they do that really well.

“They’re definitely going to test us. They’ve got some good players. Jacob Miller is a key player for them, I like the look of him and what he’s doing this year. They are definitely going to be a challenge.”

Both teams are coming off a loss, Tigers having been beaten 28-12 at Wigan Warriors last Friday.

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Orr said: “We were pretty poor with the ball and we made a lot of crucial errors, penalties and we let Wigan get out of their half too easy.

“We didn’t seem to apply any pressure at all, things we did the week before against Catalans really well.

“It was a tough game, but if we learn from it – which I am sure we will – we will be a better side for it as well. We are inconsistent. One week we were great and the next we were very poor.

“We know we are a lot better than we showed against Wigan and we will be looking to put that right this week.”

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Tigers will be without at least four of the players on duty against Wigan.

Stand-off Ben Roberts (calf), loose-forward Alex Foster (calf) and prop Nathan Massey (shoulder) are all injured and winger Garry Lo, who scored a try on his debut last week, has been dropped due to his involvement in a police inquiry.

Castleford are also without James Clare, who has a fractured leg and will be sidelined for around two months, and another winger, Greg Eden, remains on the casualty list with a hamstring problem.

Jesse Sene-Lefao is available following a knee injury, fellow forwards James Green, Junior Moors and Gadwin Springer are also in contention, along with half-back Jamie Ellis.

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And Calum Turner, a full-back, has been drafted into the initial squad from the under-19s.

Castleford Tigers: from Cook, Ellis, Gale, Green, Holmes, McMeeken, McShane, Millington, Milner, Minikin, Moors, Sene-Lefao, Shenton, Springer, Trueman, Turner, Wardle, Watts, Webster.

Wakefield Trinity: from Annakin, Arona, Arundel, Ashurst, Baldwinson, Batchelor, England, Hampshire, Hirst, Huby, Johnstone, Jones-Bishop, Jowitt, Lyne, Miller, Pauli, Randell, Tupou, Wood.

Referee: Robert Hicks (Oldham).

Kick-off: Tonight, 7.45pm.

Tigers’ Ladbrokes Challenge Cup sixth round tie at home to St Helens will be played on Saturday, May 12 and televised live on BBC One (2.30pm).

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Featherstone Rovers’ home tie against holders Hull will be played on Thursday, May 10 (7.35pm), and broadcast on Sky Sports. The other televised ties are Leigh Centurions v Salford Red Devils on May 11 and Warrington Wolves against Toronto Wolfpack two days later.