Leeds Rhinos ignoring Castleford Tigers mind games as Rohan Smith provides injury update

Opposite number Lee Radford has played down Castleford's chances of claiming the final play-off place, insisting his depleted team are "limping into this game".

Radford has been left without any specialist half-backs after losing Danny Richardson to a suspected ACL injury, while Liam Watts has been suspended for a sixth time in 2022.

The Tigers boss has called it one of the biggest challenges of his coaching career and claimed he would settle for a positive performance, saying his side are "running uphill, swimming against the tide and have got a gale force wind in our faces".

Leeds are huge favourites to complete the line-up for the play-offs but Smith has warned his team to avoid being lured into thinking they are in for an easy ride.

"I'm not too aware of the noises myself and would encourage others to stay that way," he said.

"Of course, people are going to come across comments in the media but we've all been around sport long enough to know that anything can happen.

"It's about controlling what you can and not worrying too much about external factors.

"Complacency is a disease I'm not familiar with. Every game is huge.

"We've just got to prep hard like we have every week and there's obviously a little bit more riding on the outcome."

The Tigers are fresh from a 50-10 hammering at the hands of Salford Red Devils after comprehensively losing the energy battle.

Smith refuses to read anything into that display, using the most recent meeting between the sides at St James' Park as an example of how Castleford can raise their game against their local rivals.

"The last performance doesn't matter at all leading into the next one," he said.

"Before we played them at Magic, there was similar chat about people not being available and they played a real hard game that day.

"That was a good, hard game and much closer than the scoreline suggested.

"We're expecting a battle."

Leeds have selection issues of their own for their final home game of the season, although they do welcome back Aidan Sezer and Ash Handley after they both missed Monday's defeat at Catalans Dragons.

Sezer has completed his one-game suspension, while Handley is available after staying in England to be with his partner ahead of the arrival of their first child.

Smith has confirmed that the Rhinos came through the Perpignan clash unscathed but remain without several players, including Blake Austin.

The half-back played through the pain to score the winning try against Huddersfield Giants last week but it has come at a cost.

"He picked up a knock in the warm-up and battled through the game but it pulled up quite stiff so he wasn't available for selection on Monday," said Smith.

"It's an issue with the rotator in his hip. It's not a common injury.

"Hopefully the longer our season goes, the more likely he will be of being back in there."

Loose forward Cameron Smith is still nursing a leg injury, while winger David Fusitu'a would be struggling to be fit in time for next week's play-off eliminator should Leeds beat Castleford.

"He won't be available this week and would probably be out for the week after as well," said Smith.

"It's responding quite well and he's feeling quite positive about it but he won't be ready for this week, that's for sure."

Leeds’ defeat in the south of France kept Castleford’s season alive but Radford is still struggling to come to terms with the manner of his side’s loss to Salford.

The Tigers found themselves 20-0 down inside 13 minutes and went on to concede eight tries in all in their heaviest defeat of the season.

Radford could find no solace in the result at Stade Gilbert Brutus on Monday evening.

“I didn’t get a lift from it, I won’t lie to you,” he said.

“My one stipulation is we don’t back Monday’s performance up with another one like that. It was a horrible, horrible performance. If we do go down, I want us to go down swinging,

“It’s important we show more fight than we showed on Monday. That’s really, really important to us.

“We’ll come out and have a crack. I think everybody is going to have to be an eight or nine out of 10 for us to get a result this week.”

Looking at the bigger picture, Radford expects to learn a lot about his team this weekend.

“This one is a mental challenge,” he added.

“It would be criminal and unjust to go into the off-season on the back of two bad performances. Your opinion on the group changes if you go into the off-season like that.

“Whether it’s their last game for the club or they have aspirations to move forward with the club, it’s a big game for everybody.”