Leeds Rhinos v Castleford Tigers: Hooker McShane out to showcase GB tour potential against former club

Four of McShane’s club-mates – Luke Gale, Adam Milner, Jake Trueman and Liam Watts – have been named in England’s elite performance squad, but McShane was left out.

Tigers coach Daryl Powell believes McShane can still force his way on to this autumn’s Great Britain tour, but that will only come with playing well every week, starting against one of his former clubs.

“He has just got to keep going, keep playing well,” Powell said of what McShane needs to do to earn international recognition.

“James Roby, at the moment, is playing right on top of his game and there’s Josh Hodgson and Daryl Clark so there’s some unbelievable nines around at the moment and Paul’s right in the middle of that.

“He has to keep improving, keep playing well and, hopefully, he will get the chance.”

Prop Watts’ inclusion came after it seemed his Test chance may have passed him by and Powell insisted that is motivation for McShane.

“You have always got to keep trying as much as you possibly can,” added the Cas boss.

“Wattsy has changed some things about himself and I think Macca is always improving, he needs to change a couple of little bits and pieces possibly and then you never know.

“There’s nothing to say he doesn’t go on tour at the end of this year. He has just got to have an outstanding season again. That’s all he can do, he can’t do anything else. It comes down to somebody else’s decision at the end of the day, but he would not look out of place.

“Just keep working hard, keep getting better and when you come up against the better nines you’ve probably got to be better than them.

“That’s the key.”

Powell will be looking for a big game from McShane tomorrow when Tigers aim for a return to winning ways after last Friday’s home defeat by St Helens.

Tigers have not had long to dwell on that result, but Powell is unfazed by the limited preparation time. He said: “We are used to short turnarounds now,.

“We trained [on Monday] and we’ve got one more session before we play Leeds.

“They are on a bit of a shorter turnaround than us and we’ve just got to play well.”

After a strong start to the year, Tigers have lost two of their last three matches, though those defeats were to Betfred Super League’s leading teams.

Powell is confident of getting the right response from his players.

And he admitted: “I think, at the moment, we are a little bit up and down with our form and we want to get back to being a bit more consistent with how we play. We came up against a pretty good rugby league team last week and sometimes you hold your hand up and say that and you move on.

“You never want to lose two games on the trot.

“It is important to strike back pretty quickly and, over the last few years, we’ve been great at that.

“We have been really consistent in terms of striking back quickly when we lose so this is an important game for us.”

Forward Will Maher is in contention for Castleford Tigers for the first time since suffering a pectoral muscle tear during his first treaining session in pre-season.