St Helens v Castleford preview
St Helens head coach Keiron Cunningham has made three changes to his squad ahead of the visit of Castleford.
Tommy Makinson has made the case for the defence ahead of this Friday's First Utility Super League clash with Castleford Tigers.
The winger bagged his first try of the season last week and is looking for more of the same when the two sides meet at Langtree Park.
"They are a great side with a fair number of strike players," he said. "They like to give the ball some air time - and it works with good finishers, halves and forwards. "We will have to get our defence right against them and then we can move the ball. It is important for us to pick up as many points as we can."
Theo Fages, Greg Richards and Morgan Knowles have all been called up whilst Travis Burns, Andre Savelio and Jack Owens miss out.
Castleford coach Daryl Powell knows it will be a real challenge but he’s looking forward to the game: “Playing Saints at their ground is tough, they’ll look forward to being at home and they will have a good pop at us. We just need to be tough and resilient. Saints have a couple of smart coaches, who have St.Helens running through their blood. They are a top four team, and we are striving to be a top four team, it should be a tight game.”
The Tigers will be without in form Oliver Holmes for the trip on Friday night after the forward picked up a groin injury during last week’s win at Hull FC:
“Ogi drops out, and Will Maher and Gadwin Springer will come in. It’s a bit of a blow losing a player like Ogi, but I wouldn’t want to risk him with such a tough period of games coming up. He could potentially have played but been 75-80% fit. We have a big squad for a reason.”
St Helens: Makinson, Turner, Swift, Walsh, Walmsley, Roby, Amor, Vea, Wilkin, McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Tasi, Richards, Thompson, Peyroux, Fages, Greenwood, Dawson, McDonnell, Knowles.
Castleford: Dorn, Webster, Solomona, Roberts, Gale, Lynch, Milner, Millington, McMeeken, Massey, Jewitt, McShane, Cook, Moors, Hampshire, Crooks, Springer, Maher, Hitchcox.
