'Hard-fought': coaches make prediction ahead of Leeds Rhinos' derby at Castleford Tigers

Rhinos go into the derby on the back of successive victories against St Helens and Wakefield Trinity.

Tigers, by contrast, are still waiting for their opening win of the Betfred Super League season, but Smith is anticipating a tough encounter in his first time coaching Leeds at the Jungle.

“From what I’ve heard, it is hard-fought and there’s been a lot of players who’ve played for both clubs over the years,” Smith said.

“There’s plenty of links and plenty of competition, but once it kicks off we will just worry about ourselves and do our best to present ourselves well and really have a proper crack.”

Rhinos’ squad includes winger Derrell Olpherts was a try scorer for Castelford the last time Leeds visited the Jungle, in April, 2022.

Smith insisted he hasn’t been pressing Olpherts for inside information, but added: “I am sure he will be chatting to the boys about tendencies their players have.

“He can lead in his own way in that regard, but for Derrell it is about getting his own game organised and getting ready to play another good, solid game which I feel he has [been doing].”

Tigers’ squad includes Jack Broadbent, Alex Mellor and Muizz Mustapha who all played for Leeds last season and Castleford’s interim-coach Andy Last has taken a different approach.

“We’ve leaned on them, a little bit, asked them what type of systems they might use,” he confirmed.

“They have given us a bit of information, but the big thing is, just look at their team - they have quality players all across the park.

“They have strong ball carriers in their backfield in David Fusitu’a and Nene Macdonald and Derrell gets them on the front foot and will happily make 20 carries a game and rack up the metres.

“On the back of that, Blake Austin and Aidan Sezer are starting to find their groove so they are a good side - and one of our own, Dan Smith, has told us the importance of Cam, his little brother.

“We have our work cut out, but we’re confident with the work we’ve done this week and the plan we’ve come up with, we should be able to give it a real good go.”