Familiar foes for Castleford Tigers as Oli Holmes continues on comeback trail

After a long-running knee tendonitis problem, he came off the bench to make his first appearance in six months when the Super League leaders vanquished Huddersfield Giants 52-16 last Friday.

Now Holmes is ready to quickly back-up and head to Wigan in a televised game against the World Club Challenge kings.

“I came back from injury twice away at Wigan last year so this is nothing new to me,” he said.

“I thought it was going to be Wigan again, but I managed to get back for Huddersfield a week before so that’s blown a few cobwebs off.

“I can’t wait to get out there. Everyone’s talking about it, but it’s just another game and we don’t want to make too much of a fuss about it.

“We want to get back to doing what we do best and that should stand us in good stead.”

Castleford have won six of their opening seven games to lift hopes of a first league title.

Seeing the industrious Holmes, such a bedrock of Daryl Powell’s side in recent years, back in action is certainly another positive.

The 24-year-old admitted: “I enjoyed getting back out there on Friday.

“It was a bit of a shock to the system that first 15 minutes – the lungs were screaming for a bit of oxygen – but I did enjoy being out there with the boys again.

“It had been quite annoying as with the injury I’ve had I’ve never been quite sure how long I was going to be out for and how long it’d take to get right.

“It was all a bit of a guessing game. I sort of had it in my mind that I’d be right for the start of the season, but it wasn’t to be.”

Holmes accepts Castleford must improve at Wigan.

“Huddersfield came after us in that first half last week,” he said.

“We were a bit erratic at times; our completions were pretty poor in that first half and they put us under a bit of pressure.

“But to come in at half-time with the scoreline that we did (16-4 ahead) just shows we are a top-four team.

“But we just need to be more tidy with what we’re doing – we’re not starting games too good at the minute and that needs to be addressed.

“Wigan lost at Leeds and they’ll be looking for a bit of a reaction from that game so we’re going to end up taking the backlash from that.

“We know we have to get better ourselves.”

Powell makes just one change to tonight’s team, Grant Millington drops out of the squad with Greg Minikin back after shoulder injury.

Warrington will be without England stand-off Kevin Brown for the visit of Leeds on Friday evening.

The former Huddersfield Giants captain has not had sufficient time to recover from a head knock sustained in Wolves’ 22-22 draw with Hull on Saturday and is replaced by Dec Patton.

Warrington will also have winger Tom Lineham available after completing a two-match ban.