Wakefield Trinity's Joe Arundel targets victory over hometown club Castleford

Trinity crashed down to earth when they were hammered 38-4 at Salford Red Devils, just five days after shocking Betfred Super League leaders St Helens 24-20.

The gritty win over Saints had been expected to kick-start Trinity’s flagging season, but now they are back to square one as they prepare for another massive challenge away to last year’s league leaders and Grand Final runners-up.

“That’s rugby league,” said Arundel, who scored Wakefield’s only try at AJ Bell Stadium.

“One minute you can be up there and the next you’re down in the dumps.”

Reflecting on the loss against Salford, Arundel admitted: “Everything didn’t go right for us, from the off.

“We were sloppy, but the good thing about rugby is we can put it right this week. It will be tough, but it would be a good game to do it if we can get the result over Castleford.”

Trinity had been competitive in all their previous defeats this year, but were second-best throughout against Salford.

It was Trinity’s heaviest of the season and their sixth in seven games.

Boss Chris Chester fielded an unchanged line-up from the one that stunned Saints, and Arundel reckons they can “beat anybody on our day”.

Arundel conceded: “We just need to make sure we are on our game and worry about ourselves, because Salford ran harder and played smarter. Everything they could beat us in, they beat us in.”

After the game, Chester promised changes this week, accusing some of his players of being unable to back up a good performance.

Asked what he thought had gone wrong, Arundel said: “I can’t pin-point it. It was just a bad day all round.”

Despite their poor recent run of results Wakefield are still on track to secure a place in the Super-8s.

Wakefield are eighth in the table with a four-point cushion over ninth-placed Widnes Vikings.

Five wins from their final 11 games in the regular season should be enough to secure a top-eight spot and avoid being dragged into a battle against relegation in the Qualifiers.

“There’s been some games this year when we’ve chucked it away and, hopefully, that doesn’t cost us farther down the line,” Arundel said.

“They are the games we need to win and, obviously, we need to put it right this week because Castleford are a good team.

“The scoreline could be embarrassing if we play like that again because they’re twice the team.

“They are a lot smarter and they are tough to beat, but we are capable of beating them.”

Arundel began his career at Tigers, who will also be aiming to return to winning ways after a comprehensive defeat at Wigan Warriors last Friday.

“We will be looking to bounce back,” Arundel insisted. “We know we can play well against Cas.

“I know in the past we haven’t done that, so we owe them one. They’ve always come up trumps against us, so we’ll be looking to get the result this week.

“I missed the game against them earlier in the season, but it’s one of my favourite games to play in. I am a Cas lad and all my family support Cas, so it’ll be a good game to play in – and it’s always nice to get the result.”