Leeds look to bounce back and strengthen play-off hopes in all-Yorkshire clash against Castleford

Leeds Rhinos face off against Castleford Tigers for the third time in 2021, with this arguably the most important so far as the end of the regular season in Super League draws closer.

Leeds currently sit in sixth-place when looking at the league table and occupy the last play-off place accordingly by virtue of a better points difference than Hull Kingston Rovers in seventh, both with an identical win percentage of 50% exactly.

After a sluggish start to the campaign, the Rhinos have fought hard to get themselves into that position, but did lose out at home to Warrington Wolves 26-27 with a last-minute drop goal in their last outing. Nothing has been achieved yet – Leeds’ squad will know that – and victories need to keep coming if Agar’s side are to secure a play-off spot come mid-September when Super League’s regular season reaches its’ conclusion.

Friday night’s visitors to Emerald Headingley stadium – Cas – come into the contest out of sorts having lost six of their last seven games, including the Challenge Cup final to St Helens at Wembley and either side of that defeat have also suffered heavily from COVID within the camp.

Now sitting eighth but slipping out of the play-off picture almost entirely, the Tigers lost 16-34 at home to Huddersfield Giants on Monday with 15 players absent through either isolation or injury and now look to be completing a slow jog to the finish line for this campaign. Once the season has been seen through, head coach Daryl Powell and some members of the playing staff will leave the club, heading for Warrington.

The Fords may well take some motivation for their trip to Headingley from the last time that the two sides met back in May, needing to improve massively if they are to be successful this time around. Having led with a try in the first minute of the game at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle, Cas went on to concede no less than 60 unanswered points, and Leeds came away very comfortable winners.

Squads

Positive news for the Rhinos came in their 21-man squad announcement as half back Rob Lui made his return, replacing prop Mikolaj Oledzki after the latter was ruled out with a toe injury.

Oledzki and teammate Alex Mellor should be available soon after scans on their respective injuries revealed that the damage wasn’t as serious as first expected. Jack Broadbent (ankle), Alex Sutcliffe (knee) and Jack Walker (foot) do still remain out of action though.

Luke Gale will also miss out on the meeting with former side Cas through suspension. His appeal against a two-match ban for ‘contact with a match official’ during the defeat to Warrington was reduced down to one following a hearing, but that one game will be on Friday night.

Interestingly, the Rhinos announced the signing of club legend Kevin Sinfield’s son – 16-year-old Jack – earlier this week. Considered a very exciting prospect by some at such a young age and with the strong family connection to the club, he will be one to watch in the coming years at Headingley.

Cas meanwhile see a number of senior players return from those previously mentioned COVID isolations. Boss Powell said in the build-up to the game that six wins from eight will be required for the Fords to reach the play-offs, though acknowledged that achieving that would be very difficult.

Sadly for the Tigers, they will have to do it without club captain Michael Shenton. Ever-influential, Shenton picked up a facial injury in defeat to Huddersfield which Powell said looked to be a serious fracture post-match, though nothing has been confirmed as of yet.

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