Tigers v Rhinos - Teams
Castleford are looking to repeat last season's heroics against defending champions Leeds at The Jungle on Friday evening.
Last Updated: 15/05/09 9:57pm
Castleford Tigers return to Super League action on Friday looking to repeat last season's heroics against the champions at The Jungle.
The Tigers claimed their first win of the 2008 season 38-20 at home to the Rhinos and, despite going down twice in the next two meetings at Headingley, coach Terry Matterson will be reminding his players of that performance.
Indeed, the Tigers have proved a much stronger unit in their second straight campaign in the top flight and currently occupy eighth thanks to seven wins from 12 so far.
A 24-16 loss at Hull FC halted that progress somewhat, but they bounced back with an extra-time victory over Halifax in the Carnegie Challenge Cup last weekend and Matterson has stuck with the same 17 players that came through that test against the National League side.
Youngsters Jordan Thompson, who has yet to make his senior debut, and prop Nathan Massey complete the 19, with Richard Owen, Ryan Hudson, Craig Huby, Kirk Netherton and Dean Widders all still sidelined.
Problems
Having been dumped out of the Challenge Cup by St Helens at the start of April, Leeds Rhinos have enjoyed an extra week's preparation for the clash.
Victory against the Catalans Dragons at the Murrayfield Magic weekend was the Rhinos' eighth win of the campaign, but the champions have had some alarming results of late.
St Helens started the downturn in the cup and the Rhinos then went down to Bradford and Salford in successive weeks.
Harlequins then got the better of them the last time they played in England and Brian McClennan will be keen to see a sustained improvement from his team as the season approaches the halfway point.
Ryan Bailey has been cleared to return for the Rhinos after overcoming the concussion injury that kept him out of the trip to Edinburgh.
The prop comes in for Simon Worrall as the only change to the 19-man squad, while Kallum Watkins, who was a try scorer in the Reserve Academy's win over Bradford last weekend, is also included and Carl Ablett has overcome the wrist injury he picked up against the Dragons.
Castleford: Dixon, Shenton, Evans, Wainwright, Chase, Sherwin, Sargent, Ferres, Clayton, Westerman, Jones, Higgins, Feather, Boyle, Massey, Ford, Faumuina, McGoldrick, Thompson
Leeds: Webb, Donald, Smith, Senior, Hall, McGuire, Burrow, Leuluai, Buderus, Peacock, Jones-Buchanan, Lauitiiti, Sinfield, Diskin, Bailey, Kirke, Ablett, Burgess, Watkins