Herculean task is not beyond the Tigers, says Huby

Castleford Tigers are full of it at the moment. Indeed, they are so laden with new-found faith in their abilities that they see no reason why they cannot topple Super League leaders Wigan Warriors this evening.

Their belief stems not only from the victory achieved a week ago when Hull FC were brought to their knees by a brilliant performance at Wheldon Road.

It is more the effect new coach Daryl Powell has had in the entire seven weeks since he took charge of the ailing side.

He has helped elicit two wins and a draw from their last four outings and, though venturing to Wigan will be their biggest challenge yet, it is easy to see why they remain undaunted.

“I think Daryl’s just brought us closer as a team,” said Craig Huby, the barrelling prop now under his sixth Castleford coach since Graham Steadman gave him his debut in 2003.

“There’s more togetherness and training is really intense, which is good. We’re not dropping as many balls actually in training.

“That’s a large focus of ours – having that intensity in practice which we’ve lacked previously – but togetherness is a big thing, too, and it showed against Hull.

“When we do it right and do it properly, it all comes together.

“We can’t just sit on that win, though. We’ve another tough game at Wigan and we have to back it up.

“If we can keep building like we have been doing we can easily make the eight.”

In 12th place and seven points adrift off the play-off spots with only eight games to go, it will be a Herculean effort although Wigan could actually be primed for a shock defeat.

Bereft of so many front-line players, including talismanic captain Sean O’Loughlin and ex-Hull KR stand-off Blake Green, they saw their 13-match winning run brought to an end by Warrington Wolves on Monday night.

The short turnaround and further injury woe, with prolific ‘Man of Steel’ Sam Tomkins and England prop Lee Mossop joining that crocked list, could leave them brittle and suspect to a more surprising conqueror this evening.

However, despite all those absentees, Shaun Wane’s side played their part in possibly the most high quality and intense game of the season against the Challenge Cup holders, whom they led heading into the final six minutes.

Green and England hooker Michael McIlorum return tonight and Wigan, who Castleford have failed to beat in their last nine meetings, will demand an instant response when the lowly club arrive in Lancashire.

Huby said: “They are always a hard team, especially over there. They have quality players all over the park, even the young kids coming in.

“They have their systems and they all stick to those. That makes them hard to shut down.

“But if we keep playing to our potential and working hard for each other, there’s no reason why we can’t go over there, make a good challenge and maybe come away with the two points.”

For so long, Castleford’s defensive deficiencies were plain to see under previous coach Ian Millward, whose side conceded an average 33 points per game.

His sacking after the 40-24 home loss to Huddersfield Giants in April was almost inevitable.

Improving that defence was always Powell’s main aim and, in fairness, he has probably found it tougher than expected to address given that average has only improved marginally since.

However, there was an eagerness to their defensive work – especially the art of being able to scramble a recovery – against Hull that pointed to a corner being turned.

Huby, the affable 27-year-old who was at the heart of some of Castleford’s best moments, added: “We know we can score points. That’s clear.

“There was still a few sloppy tries and individual mistakes but things like that can be fixed and the boys did stick together.

“The big key, though, is defending and I thought that at times we defended very well and really hard.

“We defended our actual line really strongly, too. We had a pride in it on Friday which is a good thing as that’s something we’ve talked about.

“We just need to take that into every game and have pride in our own goal line defence, keep working as a team and turning up with that attitude for each other as then you get the benefits and the two points.”

Undoubtedly, more questions will be asked of their defence tonight when the likes of England winger Josh Charnley and in-form scrum-half Matty Smith look to unpick them.

Yet that confidence can produce stunning results.

Someone who will surely be benefitting from it more than most is Richard Owen, the winger who had been out of sorts this season but was brought in for his first game under Powell against Hull and duly delivered a crucial performance.

“He’d not played for nine weeks or so but came in and did a fantastic job,” said Huby about the talented but often fragile 22-year-old.

“It’s credit to him. He got his head down, just worked hard and got the rewards against Hull. He came in off his wing a couple of times to stop Shannon McDonnell and that’s not easy to do when you’re out wide.

“Richie stopped a few breaks, too, and he responded really well.

“Hopefully it’s onwards and upwards for him.”

Unsurprisingly, Owen has retained his place in Powell’s squad while former St Helens and Melbourne prop Keith Mason could make his first appearance in six weeks after recovering from both injury and illness.

The 31-year has not played since Powell’s first game in charge in Perpignan and so, like Owen, is keen to prove he can add more to the squad.