Leeds Rhinos v Castleford Tigers: Rhinos can’t be written off insists Matt Cook

Rhinos have won only one of their eight games so far this year and are on a five-match losing run, including their opening two home fixtures.

They are two points adrift at the bottom and were pipped 26-22 by Catalans Dragons in Perpignan just five days ago, but Cook said Castleford won’t be taking them lightly.

“It’s going a bit tough for them at the moment,” he said of Rhinos. “There’s been some real close results for them with the game just going away from them right at the very end.

“They’ve been in them for most of the game and they’ll be looking to get back to winning ways, especially on home soil, so we can’t underestimate them.

“There’s some big names in their team and we’ll have to be at our best.”

Of Rhinos’ pack, he warned: “They’ve got the big names, like Trent Merrin, but they have some young guys in, too, who are really looking to make a mark.

“They’ll keep coming at us and we have to make sure we get on top, but we’ll be going out there to make sure they don’t get out of this losing run any time soon – and we love going up against Leeds.”

Tigers have their own motivation after being crushed 42-12 at home by league leaders St Helens last Friday.

Cook admitted: “We thought we let ourselves down a lot with just the way we went about things in a lot of areas in our game.

“Defensively we were not at our best at all. It wasn’t good enough, but it has been a short turnaround with playing Leeds on Thursday night.

“We have to cop it on the chin, work hard and try and put things right and get back to winning ways.”