Castleford Tigers v St Helens: Powell backs Tigers' steel and desire to see them through

The West Yorkshire club has clearly been the dominant force in Super League this term, winning the League Leaders’ Shield for the first time in their history and by a record margin of 10 points.

However, they are now into the murky realms of sudden-death football when they host St Helens in this evening’s first semi-final.

Castleford realise their entire campaign rests on the 80 minutes to come and, having earlier lost a Challenge Cup quarter-final to Hull FC, there are those who question whether they will handle the occasion.

Powell, though, is confident they can take their spot at Old Trafford a week on Saturday.

“We have played a lot of big games and come out on top,” he insisted. “This is a very, very big game. We need to play well and deliver, prove we are good enough to do it. It is up to the players to handle what it stands for and what it gets you if you win it.

“I think we will be all right; we have got plenty of experience and we’ve just got to turn up on the day and be too good for our opposition.”

St Helens finished fourth, fully 17 points behind the leaders, but they have found form towards the end of the season under new coach Justin Holbrook and just last month became the first team to beat Castleford at The Jungle in more than a year.

Before Holbrook’s arrival, Saints also beat them 26-22 at Langtree Park in April only for Tigers to then vanquish them 53-10 in the Challenge Cup the following month before edging a 16-12 success in June, both at Wheldon Road.

On that most recent Super 8s defeat, Powell said: “We’ve looked at the way they defended and we need to be a bit smarter on the way we apply our work on the edges. We are mindful of that.

“Personnel-wise, we’ve got some players who’ll be in the team who weren’t for that game and that can change the focus a little bit. We’ve just got to play well; we didn’t in that game and they did - that’s life. We have lost five games in 30 so we’ve not been too far away.

“Apart from last week (an under-strength side’s 48-16 defeat by Hull FC) we’ve been really difficult to beat.

“Even when we’ve been poor we’ve only just lost games. That steel and desire to come out on top will stand us in good stead.”

Shenton interview: Page 22