Castleford Tigers fans urged to make OneBore Stadium a 'fortress' as youngster 'close' to debut in home finale
Castleford Tigers will aim to end a miserable home campaign on a high tonight (Friday) when they take on visitors Catalans Dragons in the club’s centenary match.
A crowd of close to 10,000 is expected and Tigers will go level on points with eighth-placed Catalans if they win. Trips to Bradford Bulls and Huddersfield Giants follow this evening’s game and assistant-coach Luke Robinson is determined to give supporters something to cheer about at the end of a year when they’ve managed just five victories on home turf.
Robinson had a brief spell as a Tigers player in 2004 and has been in the visiting camp numerous times with Wigan Warriors and Huddersfield Giants. “You know Cas fans are going to be vocal,” he said.
“The atmosphere they generate when they get behind the side, it literally can be like there’s an extra man. It didn’t matter where they were in the league or what their form was, you just knew you were going to have a really tough time when you went to Cas. It has been a bit of a fortress over the years and hopefully we can get back to that where we give the fans something to sing and shout about and play some attractive rugby.”
In the absence of a head-coach, Robinson will select the team for tonight’s game – to be streamed on Sky Sports+ and SuperLeague+ and refereed by James Vella – and confirmed 20-year-old back Daniel Sarbah is in contention for his Tigers debut. His inclusion is the only change to the 21-man squad named ahead of last Saturday’s defeat at St Helens.
Robinson said: “He is close. The boys have a lot of respect for him, the way he goes about his training. Scott [Murrell] has had a big influence on him, being the reserves coach and he has got nothing but really good words to say about him. There is definitely the potential he could play.”
Chris Satae, Lenny Marc and Adrian Delarose have been drafted into Catalans’ initial squad, replacing Tommy Makinson, Kruise Leeming, and Romain Navarrete.
Castleford Tigers: from Ravalawa, Asi, Weaver, Atoni, Hood, Lawler, Lane, Mellor, Stimson, Greacen, Senior, Hall, Robb, Hirst, Laulu-Togaga’e, Dupree, Brown, Vaalepu, Brand, McNamara, Sarbah.
Catalans Dragons: from Stains, Cotric, Sexton, Dodd, Satae, Da Costa, Bousquet, Condon, Garcia, Allen, Laguerre, Aispuro-Bichet, Marc, Tison, Martin, Darrelatour, Descalzi, Lis, Delarose, Rogers-Smith, Goudemand.
Referee: James Vella (Sydney). Kick-off: Today (Friday), 8pm.