McMeeken pleased with KR win

Mike McMeeken made his return to the playing squad a couple of weeks ago away against Catalans Dragons and at home last week against Wakefield Trinity, coming off the bench for both.

On Thursday night he was named in the starting lineup for the first time this year and he celebrated it with a win over Hull Kingston Rovers, who made it very difficult in the opening forty minutes as Mike discusses.

“Very good win to turn it round but we started poorly and at place like Craven Park then you know it’s going to be a hard day at the office and we made it pretty hard in that first half, the crowd got behind them when they went 6-0 up. So, whilst we’re disappointed with our start and we needed to go after them, it was good of us to turn it round and I think we can be proud of that second half.”

During the first period of the game Castleford often held the Robins inside their own half and made a lot of chances but struggled to convert them into points. This was summed up by McMeeken coming close twice to getting his first try of the year, but he stayed resilient and the big man got over for his first four pointer of the season in the 73rd minute.

“Let’s not be greedy let’s just get the one… No, the main thing is the win and the two points, like I just said it can be a real tough place to come to and so the boys are all happy getting that win.”

WATCH: - Highlights of Castleford's win over Hull KR on Tigers TV

Three weeks in a row Castleford have trailed at the break of matches after conceding points early in the game, the Tigers will review and work on that area of performances this week in preparation for the match against Warrington says McMeeken.

“It’s a tough one to be honest we always go out there to start well but these past two weeks we haven’t, so we’ll work even more on that with the decent turnaround ahead of the game next week and we can review this game to see where we went wrong.

A few too many errors, giving them too much good field position and too many penalties out of their end, we can fix that up and get after teams. Next week we’ve got Warrington so that will be a tough game and I’m sure it’ll be an exciting fixture.”

The right-edge of the Fords has been proven to be a successful one so far this season with Derrell Olpherts scoring four tries, as the second rower on the right side Mike is loving the combinations that are building in attack.

“It’s really good and plenty of energy Derrell has come in and he’s fit in so well, Danny obviously has too. Peanut (Peter Mata’utia) has gone from fullback to centre and he looks completely natural there and it’s not a new position for him, but I think those three players have done really well. All our additions this season have been massive positives for us.”

Round Five was Castleford Tigers’ first Thursday fixture of the 2020 season and plenty of Fords fans made the journey over to a very, very cold Hull College Craven Park to cheer on the players and it was noticed on the pitch.

“Massive hats off to the fans who travelled because the conditions were Baltic out there, freezing, so for them to be loud for the whole of the 80 minutes was a massive lift for us and helped us get through the game.”

Up next the Tigers are back on the road to take on 2019’s Challenge Cup winners Warrington Wolves, in what should be a highly competitive Super League match.

“It’s always a good fixture going over to Warrington and given how we got the win over them in the playoffs last year I think they will be looking to turn us over. Tough fixture so we’ve just got to be ready for it.”

JOIN US AT THE JUNGLE for Castleford vs St Helens on Sunday, 15th March – kickoff at 3.30pm, tickets are available anytime, online or head into our retail stores!