Sky pundits say this side won’t make the play-offs

There was a lot of discussion about where Castleford Tigers are in their journey on Sky Sports over the last seven days.

In their defeat to Salford Red Devils they showed character but perhaps little else.

However, in the eyes of Terry O’Connor, they should have won the game:

“They should have won it. When you are in a struggling side and you look back at the end of the year, you think on games and say, we should have nailed that and if we had, we would have ended up in the top half of the table.”

Meanwhile, Jamie Jones-Buchanan gave a very interesting assessment of them:

“They don’t look like a side who bouncing around at the bottom of the table, there were some really nice moments in there.

“There were opportunities when they looked really odd and couldn’t quite do the basics right tonight but they have a team spirit.

“Andy Last talked about energy after the game and about a lack of energy leading to errors and fatigue can make you make mistakes.

“To me, they don’t look athletic enough apart from Greg Eden, they don’t look electric to me.

“They also have to concentrate better.

“You can turn up and perform to your very best but if your ceiling is seven out of 10 and that is as high as you can go, there is a lot of progression for Cas.”

Following this, Brian Carney asked Buchanan and O’Connor whether they felt the Tigers could make the play-offs and both said: “No.”

O’Connor explained: “They aren’t a side that can make the play-off but they can survive in Super League for sure.”

When asked if this was because of Wakefield Trinity’s woes or because of the quality of the Tigers, O’Connor said: “A bit of both.”