Brown: 'We have to guard against a Cas explosion' Wounded Tigers will be a threat warns coach

Huddersfield Daily Examiner (Huddersfield, England), June 19, 2009

Byline: CHRIS ROBERTS

GIANTS chief Nathan Brown has warned his players to get ready for an initial Castleford Tigers onslaught.

Coach Terry Matterson's men head to the Galpharm Stadium tonight (8.00) still smarting from a narrow 16-14 Challenge Cup quarter-final defeat at Huddersfield three weeks ago and then a 50-10 thrashing at St Helens seven days ago.

That makes the Tigers a wounded - and dangerous - beast, and Brown knows that's likely to be reflected in the way Castleford usually start their Super League contests.

"One thing you can usually guarantee against Castleford is that they will start strongly," said Brown, whose side also secured a 26-24 triumph at The Jungle in March.

"We obviously can't afford that to happen. If they do start well, they could quickly get some momentum and make life difficult for us.

"Although they're going through a bit of a tough spell, they've still got the players to cause you lots of problems.

"They're not short of players who have a lot of natural attacking flair and after going so close to beating us in the Challenge Cup the other week I'm sure they'll come here fancying their chances against us tonight.

"I'm sure that will act as a source of motivation for them tonight.

"But we're also keen to win this one to get back to winning ways after the disappointment of losing at Leeds last Sunday." The Giants were finally undone at Headingley by a 77th-minute interception try from Leeds winger Kallum Watkins, which sealed the visitors' fate and gave the hosts a hard-fought 20-12 triumph.

But Brown believes the nature of the defeat, when the champions had to fight back from a 12-0 deficit to take the honours, has failed to dent the confidence of his players.

"You'd like to think the performance at Leeds would help keep the spirits high," added Brown.

"There's certainly nothing to suggest in training that the defeat has affected the confidence of anyone.

"They're still upbeat, and so they should.

Everyone knows Leeds are one of the best sides in the competition, but we gave it a really good go against them.

"We were good enough to open up a 12-0 lead, but we were just not quite good enough to beat them.

"But I'm sure we'll have learned some lessons from this, and if something similar to this happens again we'll deal with it much better." Squads, Giants: B Hodgson, Brown, Whatuira, D Hodgson, Fulton, Robinson, Crabtree, Faiumu, D Griffin, Lolesi, Raleigh, Wild, Finnigan, Jackson, Mason, Moore, Cudjoe, Mossop, Sculthorpe.

Tigers: Owen, Dixon, Shenton, Evans, Wainwright, Chase, Sargent, Huby, Ferres, Clayton, Westerman, Jones, Higgins, Feather, Boyle, Netherton, Faumuina, McGoldrick, Widders..

CAPTION(S):

A WHOLE NEW CHALLENGE: Giants forward Eorl Crabtree leads the charge in the Challenge Cup clash with Castleford at the Galpharm but the visitors will be out for revenge in Super League XIV tonight.