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CASTLEFORD coach Daryl Powell is not expecting Wembley finalists Warrington to lose their focus when they meet in a top-four Super 8s clash at The Jungle tomorrow night.
The two clubs are jostling for a home semi-final and, while Powell’s Tigers have only one trophy left to play for, the Wolves still have high hopes of completing the double.
“Warrington are in a pretty good run of form,” Powell said.
“Obviously they’re in the Challenge Cup final and they’ve got minimal injuries. They’ve been pretty fortunate from that perspective.
“We managed to beat them a few weeks ago with quite a few missing, but we know that we’re going to have to play well.
“They’re going to be wanting to put in a really good performance before they go to Wembley and we’re going to have to make sure we play over the top of them.”
With one eye on Wembley, Warrington coach Steve Price rested full-back Stefan Ratchford and forwards Ben Murdoch-Masila and Mike Cooper for last week’s dummy run against the Catalans Dragons.
All three return tonight in place of winger Josh Charnley and packmen Harvey Livett and Ben Westwood while Powell will give a home debut to full-back Peter Mata’utia, who has recovered from a hamstring injury sustained on his debut at Widnes last month.
Fifth-placed Huddersfield will have the losers of the game at Castleford in their sights as they aim to keep alive their slender top-four hopes at the expense of struggling Hull at Stadium Way.
While the Giants have won 10 of their last 11 league games, Lee Radford’s Black and Whites have lost their last five, but coach Simon Woolford is determined not to underestimate his side’s opponents.
“They are going through what we went through earlier this season,” Woolford said. “It’s tough times for Lee, but I’m sure they are looking to finish off well in the last six or seven weeks.
“We are preparing for Hull to come and play their best footy. Going through what they have been through, they are probably down on a bit of confidence. It only takes a couple of passes to stick to regain a bit of confidence.
“But we have been really good defensively in the last couple of months and we need to continue that.”
Huddersfield’s evergreen half-back Danny Brough goes into the game needing just four points to climb up to seventh place in the list of all-time leading scorers.
Brough’s career total of 3,683 points includes 204 scored during his brief spell with Hull in 2005-06 when he helped them win the Challenge Cup in Cardiff.
