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Castleford Tigers v Catalans Dragons: Preview

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Super League early high-flyers Castleford are looking bounce back from last week’s defeat against Salford on Sunday as they host the Catalans Dragons. It was a tough defeat for the Tigers at the AJ Bell Stadium, with Gareth O’Brien’s drop-goal in the final moments deciding the close-fought encounter. The Dragons also come into the game on the back of a defeat, they went down to St Helens who beat them 28-24 in the South of France.

Castleford Tigers head coach Daryl Powell is expecting that his side will alter their mentality as they head into the game on Sunday afternoon, accusing them of being beaten for attitude against the Red Devils. Despite the close score-line, he called his side ‘poor’ and wants an immediate response. “I’ve constantly spoken about mentality and maintaining focus and we got beaten a little for attitude last week.” He added: “I thought our defence was poor, obviously we didn’t concede a lot of points and we defended our line well most of the time but cracked at crucial moments.”

The Tigers will be without top try scorer Greg Minikin who is ruled out through a shoulder injury, he is replaced by Joel Monaghan. Rangi Chase returns after a three-game suspension for disciplinary reasons and will look to get back into the swing of things quickly.

Laurent Frayssinous’ side travel to Yorkshire after back-to-back defeats. They face Castleford looking for revenge and must remember that they have not won at the Jungle since late 2012. Despite their downward turn in form, Catalans did win a hard-fought game away at Hull FC earlier in the season, a match, much like this one, that not many people give them a chance of winning.

There is one chance for the team from Perpignan with Louis Anderson replacing the injured Mickael Simon. Crucially the Dragons are still without forward general Greg Bird and his absence has been evident, both in the second half against Leeds and in the match against Saints last week.

Castleford Squad: Chase, Cook, Eden, Gale, Hardaker, Holmes, Lynch, Massey, McShane, McMeeken, Millington, Milner, Monaghan, Moors, Roberts, Sene-Lefao, Shenton, Springer, Webster.

Catalans Squad: Inu, Williame, Yaha, Walsh, Myler, Moa, Aiton, Casty, Anderson, Horo, Bousquet, Garcia, Bosc, Baitieri, Duport, Burgess, Thornley, Da Costa, Margalet.

Referee: J Smith

Touch-judges: J Child and C Kendall

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