Castleford versus Wakefield is already being billed as a relegation dogfight and it’s only April.
But England full-back Niall Evalds says Tigers view tonight’s bottom-two battle as a perfect chance to kick-start a Super League play-offs push rather than get embroiled in the basement mess. Castleford have won just one of their opening seven games. And normally that would spell disaster.
But the West Yorkshire club’s fierce derby rivals Trinity have lost all seven outings so far. And, remarkably, Friday’s 38-0 drubbing at champions St Helens was the fourth time they’ve been nilled already this year. Fit-again Evalds has missed Castleford’s last three games due to a shoulder problem.
He admitted: “I was absolutely gutted to get another injury but it wasn’t a bad one and what a massive game to come back in. There’s two sides who haven’t started anywhere near how they’d like so it is big and a derby as well. It is still early doors in the season but you want to get some wins and move up the table.
“We know if we don’t we are getting dragged into that - relegation. But we’re not really thinking about it. We’re looking to put in some performances we’re proud of and getting a roll on. We have ambitions for the play-offs and that’s not changed.”
Castleford demonstrated that by almost winning at high-flying Catalans on Saturday only to agonisingly lose out at the death. But worried Wakefield will take some comfort from knowing they won the last time they faced Tigers in July. A 32-6 success that day was their first victory against their neighbours in 18 games and they will now hope to quickly make it two.
Stand-off Jacob Miller was Trinity’s captain then but, intriguingly, now lines up to face them for the first time since switching clubs. Lance Todd Trophy winner Evalds, 29, said: “When you play your former clubs, you always look out for that fixture. I’m sure Milky (Miller) is the same but he’s an experienced player who’s seen it all before.
"He’ll be confident of doing his job and we’ve been speaking this week about if we all make sure we do our job, the performance and result will come. To get so close and not quite get the result at Catalans, was really disappointing. But there were loads of positives - it’s a tough place to go - and if we put performances like that in every week we won’t be far off.”
Evalds was limited to just ten games last term after hamstring and biceps injuries before seeing his season wiped out completely by another shoulder issue in July. England play France later this month but the ex-Salford ace - whose solitary Test appearance came against the same opponents in 2021 - said: “With the bad run of injuries I’ve had, it’s probably the last thing on my mind. I can’t wait to go out there and play well for Castleford. After a couple of freak injuries, I’ve really not thought about England.”
