LOUIS SENIOR and George Hill could be set for their Castleford Tigers debuts tomorrow night away at the Wigan Warriors.
The Tigers go up against Wigan just a week following the two sides’ clash in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals, which Wigan won 60-6.
Louis Senior will join twin Innes on the wing whilst Hill will likely start on the bench as head coach Craig Lingard confirms two new injury blows.
“Luis Johnson picked up a calf strain in the game last week so that’s another body we have lost. It will be a few weeks and Joe Westerman has been playing broken for a few weeks,” Lingard said.
“He needs an injection in his ankle to remedy the issues he’s got. He has got to be off his feet for three or four days after the injection. We are hoping the comes through and will be fit for London.”
Lingard, though revealing that Hill could debut, has explained why it isn’t just as simple as throwing in youngsters.
“George Hill is in that 19-man squad and could make his debut. We need to make sure it is right for the individual and that’s why we haven’t put academy guys into the squad.
“It’s all good saying ‘blood the youngsters’ but I don’t want to chuck an 18-year-old into a squad against Wigan – you can do the young kid more harm than good in that situation.”
So what does Lingard want Castleford to improve on tomorrow?
“We need to be competitive in terms of how we play. We’ve spoken about the players and squad we have got and where we are in this journey and that’s not helped by the number of people we have got injured or out.
“We want individuals to be consistently competitive in everything that they do whether that’s playing the ball, being in a kick chase or trying to slow the play down.
“We need to be competitive in every single involvement. We need to see better efforts at being competitive. I’m realistic with the squad we have got out there but I need to see that.
“We need to be more solid defensively. Wigan made so many metres compared to ours. We were left on the floor so many times. Defensively we have got to be better.”
Click here to purchase a digital edition of League Express.
Click here to purchase an online edition of League Express through pocketmags.com.
Click here to listen to our new League Express Podcast.
League Express is widely available from local newsagents across the north of England.
