Video - Castleford Tigers v St Helens: Time for Tigers to show they are back on track

Although plenty of players turn their hand to a bit of punditry in their down-time, the workaholic second-row has gone a step farther – he hosts his own Wednesday-night show with team-mate Jy Hitchcox.

It is, then, not surprising that Holmes is at ease with pre-match media duties ahead of Thursday evening’s intriguing game with Super League leaders St Helens.

“It was a bit of a strange one,” he said, when asked how he initially found himself working as a part-time DJ on Proper Sport’s Six Til Eight Debate.

“It came about pretty quickly. Andy Lynch (former Castleford team-mate) is our player welfare manager now and always pushing people into looking towards beyond rugby when they retire from the game.

“You’re never going to be able to retire properly – we just don’t earn enough money – so he is always into people, trying to get them on to courses and figure out what they want to do.

“I ended up sitting in on Mark Wilson’s radio show last year and said to Lynchy I actually wouldn’t mind getting into radio.

“There’s not really a course for it as such – but I managed to blag a show for myself!

“It was a great idea to take it with Jy as he’s a bit of a diverse character. We really enjoy it.

“Every time we do it on a Wednesday, we come out buzzing about it.

“It’s not just about rugby. Obviously that’s the main theme but we quite like going off on a tangent and talking about all sorts.”

On the pitch, though, the main theme has to be dominant Saints and working out just how to bring Justin Holbrook’s prolific side down to size at Wheldon Road.

It is less than a fortnight since they were last there, beating Castleford 36-18 in the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup, although that contest was far tighter than the final scoreline suggested.

Furthermore, since then, Tigers have produced their own best performance of the season with Saturday’s 38-10 success over champions Leeds Rhinos at Magic Weekend.

That suggests they are now better prepared than ever to have another crack at a quality Saints side that has lost just twice all year.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said Holmes, who continued his own impressive form with a fifth try of the season in that victory.

“It took us longer than we’d hoped to put in a performance like that on both sides of the game – with and without the ball.

“We were pretty much excellent for 80 minutes which is what we’ve been aiming for – an 80-minute performance. We’ll take confidence from that Leeds win hopefully into Thursday, which will be a good challenge for us.

“If we can get a win I think it will be a real statement to the rest of the league.

“We’ve gone quietly about things this year. Saints have been the talk, Wigan have come good at the minute but if we can knock this game off, people will stand up and take notice again.

“It’s not too often it comes around when you play teams this close together. It’s going to be interesting.”

Ben Barba, of course, was the main difference last time, the Australian full-back destined to be named ‘Man of Steel’ coming up with a hat-trick of tries to turn the game in Saints’ favour.

Last season’s League Leaders Shield winners Castleford are fifth, eight points adrift of Saints but with two games in hand.

Holmes, 25, is wary of the need to stay in touching distance of the top-four.

“They are consistently winning aren’t they, Saints and Wigan, at the minute?” he said.

“Warrington have only just lost their first match in 11 so those three Lancashire teams are setting their stalls out in the league at the moment.

“It is key for us to pick up the two points to keep in touch with them and that will give us a bit more breathing space from fifth as well.

“We’ve also a game in hand coming up next week (at bottom-placed Hull KR) so if we can win these next two games it puts us in a real good spot.”

The industrious forward has maintained his own place in Daryl Powell’s side despite the off-season arrival of Joe Wardle from Newcastle Knights.

With England’s Mike McMeeken also in the second-row, it was easy to assume Holmes would be the odd one out in 2018 but he has started the majority of matches with McMeeken and Wardle actually spending more time on the bench.

Holmes, who has spent his entire career at Wheldon Road, missed much of last season absent with a knee injury although he did return in time to feature in the club’s maiden Grand Final.

“Daryl made a great signing in Joe and coming into the season I wasn’t sure what would happen,” he said.

“He is an accomplished player who has played in the NRL and it was a bit up in the air about my future with my knee at the time.

“But I have always had belief in myself that once I got back fully fit I could be back in that starting side and playing well week in, week out. I backed myself to do that.

“I’m reasonably pleased with my form. I dropped off a little on Saturday when I wasn’t happy – there was bits in there good and not so good – but I’m looking to rectify those issues Thursday.”

The use of video referees will be scaled back during a trial at this weekend’s Betfred Championship programme in Blackpool.

The Rugby Football League has responded to growing unrest over the system of video refereeing by getting rid of the ‘live’ call by referees and taking obstruction out of the equation.