Jake Mamo: Castleford Tigers new boy can't wait for Warrington Wolves reunion in Super League round two

Tigers begin their season at home to Salford Red Devils on Friday, February 11 and face Warrington six days later.

It will be former Castleford coach Daryl Powell’s first game at HJ Stadium in charge of Warrington and ex-Tigers stars Peter Mata’utia and Oliver Holmes could make their debut.

Outside-back Jake Mamo, who scored 16 tries last season, has made the reverse journey and revealed it was the first game he looked for on the new calendar.

The full fixture list was being published today and Mamo confirmed: “I will be looking forward to the Warrington game most of all.”

He said: “It will be good to try and get one back on them and playing against your good mates is always fun, you can take the mickey out of each other a bit and kind of get into them.

“I’ll probably target Toby King and Matt Davis when we get the chance.”

The Aussie - who began his Super League career at Huddersfield Giants - has already stoked the fires, by revealing he prefers the Yorkshire scenery to that west of the Pennines.

“When I first moved to Manchester and started playing at Warrington I wasn’t as fond of the countryside,” he said.

“I do like the Yorkshire countryside and the Yorkshire Dales and the hills are nice here - but the people are great all round.”

Tigers have had a change of personnel on and off the field and Mamo insisted: “It’s very exciting to be part of something new and it also makes it a bit easier.

“I am not the only new person coming in - we’ve got six or seven new players, a new coach, new coaching staff.

“Change is always good for everyone, it’s definitely good for me.

“I think you always train harder, not necessarily consciously, but it just kind of happens and puts everyone on notice a little bit.

“Radders [coach Lee Radford] has had some success in the past and this club is looking for success, so hopefully we can do that over the next three years.”

Mamo reckons Tigers have competition across the entire squad, but stressed he is ready to fight for his place.

“Almost one to 30 is competitive, guys who have played a lot of Super League,” he said.

“There’ll be competition, if you have an off game there’ll be somebody snapping at your heels so you’ve got to be careful.

“My last three years at Warrington, I spent two years not getting picked and didn’t get picked for round one last season, but fortunately I played pretty well after that.

“Last year was probably my best year. At the start I was sitting behind Greg Inglis and some other people and that has kind of been the case for the last three years.

“But I knew if I got a chance I could be all right and that seemed to be the case.

“Hopefully if I get a chance here I’ll be all right as well.”

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