Play Off Preview #3 - Opportunity Knocks for Salford and Castleford

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The theme of this blog is both opportunity and the unexpected. Both themes apply equally to Salford and Castleford.

For Salford, they will host their first ever Super League play-off match. If they defeat Castleford, who finished in 5th place, they will then find themselves 80 minutes from the Grand Final for the first time in their history. That’s the opportunity. The unexpected goes without saying. Salford are one home win away from a shot at the Grand Final. Not bad for a side who many placed just ahead of London and Hull KR in their pre-season predictions.

Meanwhile for Castleford, Thursday’s game presents an opportunity that they would not have foreseen even a few weeks ago. The door opened a creek for Castleford by virtue of Hull FC’s poor end of season form. They forced the door open. Not only that, they removed Hull FC and Warrington from the room and slammed the door.

Now the unexpected. Castleford defeated Warrington away from home last week, who predicted that?! Not me for one! Now the even more unexpected. Let’s just take a minute to process this next sentence and how bonkers it would have sounded in February:
Castleford played well to knock Warrington out of the play-offs in the first eliminator, but face a much sterner test against Salford in the second.

That is in bold for a purpose. Little Salford present a greater threat in the play-offs than Warrington. When you look at the resources and salary cap spend of both clubs, that is unfathomable. That sentence in bold is as damning of Warrington as it is in praise of Salford.
Team News

Salford name an unchanged squad for Thursday’s game. Given their brave performance at Wigan, it is unlikely that Salford will make any changes. The squad announcement (for what it’s worth) suggests Jackson Hastings is fit after suffering an eye injury at Wigan.


Castleford's squad sees two changes, with Massey and Eden returning in place of McMeeken and Turner (albeit the former did not play due to injury last week). 

Calum Tuner was named at full back last week, Mata’utai at centre and Rankin at scrum half. However, the reality was that Rankin operated at full back, Turner on the wing and Mata’utai at scrum half. The most direct change would see Eden in a straight swap for Turner. Meanwhile Nathan Massey’s return suggests that either Jamie Ellis (an unused substitute last week) or Jacques O’ Neill will drop out.
2019 Previous Meetings

Sunday 17th March:           Castleford 24-20 Salford


Friday 21 June:                  Salford 26-16 Castleford


Who will get the better of meeting 3?

Play-off Schedule (as it stands)



Next Blog

 Tomorrow, we will look forward to the fourth St Helens vs Wigan derby of the season with a place at Old Trafford on the line. To continue the theme of the unexpected, who would have thought that on Good Friday?

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