IN THE rush to embrace Harlequins, Catalans Dragons and the new Bridgend-based Celtic Crusaders farther down the sport’s pecking order, there has been a tendency to neglect the return of a beloved, true rugby league-blooded club in Castleford Tigers after their year out of the engage Super League.
The sport is good at looking to new horizons while overlooking its back yard. Castleford’s first demotion in their 78-year existence could have spelt the end of the club in the West Yorkshire former mining and glassblowing town as a force. However, no one would underestimate their task of avoiding the drop for a second time in three seasons, not helped by Catalans’ leg-up in the form of a two-year immunity from relegation.
Castleford’s defiance cannot be dismissed as readily as bookmakers and pundits have been in writing off their survival chances. Rugby league will never take the place of the lost industries, but, as an outlet for a town (population 40,000) to display its pride, Wheldon Road has lost none of its allure.
A 5,573 average crowd in the lower division last year exceeded that of four Super League clubs. For all its faults, the old ground is among the sport’s most atmospheric venues and, at or near its 11,000 capacity, will provide a fitting stage for the born-again Tigers, for whom Waine Pryce, the wing, is the sole survivor this evening of the team relegated on the last day of the 2004 season.
Despite the difficulties experienced by all LHF National League One Grand Final winners assembling a competitive team at short notice, Castleford have constructed a decent-looking pack, with a grizzled trio of Danny Nutley, Danny Sculthorpe and Keith Mason and the arrival this week of Danny Ward, the Great Britain prop whom Leeds Rhinos dismissed for disciplinary breaches but the Tigers were happy to snap up.
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An eventful close season featured a long-running tussle with Wests Tigers, the NRL champions, over Ryan McGoldrick, the centre, who eventually settled his future at Castleford, while a court case in Australia hanging over Willie Manu, another new signing, came to a head this week, when he received 200 hours’ community service for assaulting a nightclub owner, ruling out the former St GeorgeIllawarra Dragons forward until next month.
Craig Gower’s agent has also been in touch about the troubled Australia half back possibly joining the club, although Terry Matterson, the former London Broncos captain who has got his first head coaching opportunity after three years as an assistant at Canberra Raiders, is resigned to a half-back shortage for the moment. The relatively inexperienced pair of Andy Kain and Paul Handforth are first choice, but with Handforth injured, McGoldrick is expected to fill in at stand-off in the match at home to Hull tonight.
As yet there is no temptation to play Brad Davis, who defied the ageing process at 37 to inspire Castleford’s Grand Final success in October and is now on the coaching staff. “I think I’m getting around the park quicker than Brad,” Matterson said. “But we’ve players who can do the job and there’s a quiet confidence about the place. People say survival’s the goal. I’m thinking higher than that.”
Having spent three seasons playing for the Broncos in Charlton and at Twickenham, Matterson is the last person to decry the chance of a club from outside the traditional boundaries. “We know Catalans have a three-year guarantee of life in Super League. That’s not an issue with me,” he said. “It’s important we have teams in more areas.”
Nevertheless, it is good to have “Classy Cas” back. The big time has missed the little town that loves to roar.
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TELEVISION: Castleford v Hull, live on Sky Sports 1 from 7.30pm (kick-off 8pm)