Castleford Tigers vs Huddersfield Giants Predictions: Visitors to triumph at the Jungle

Castleford Tigers bid for their first win of the Betfred Super League season at the fourth time of asking as they host a Huddersfield Giants side who have lost back-to-back games since their opening round win (kick-off 20:00 GMT).

Craig Lingard’s Tigers were comfortably beaten 30-8 at Warrington last weekend as the Wolves made it back-to-back wins, with followers of this column narrowly missing out on the predicted 16-20 point win at 9/2. Huddersfield lost by 14 at champions Wigan last week, having suffered a 28-0 defeat at St Helens the week before. This promises to be an intense and fiery local derby at The Mend-A-Hose Jungle, making for a tough call on our Castleford Tigers vs Huddersfield Giants predictions... 

Team news

Castleford have Papua New Guinea international prop Sylvester Namo in their squad for the first time since his arrival over the winter, while Charbel Tasipale is available again after injury.

Playmaker Danny Richardson missed out last week following his head injury at Salford two weeks ago, and is again omitted from the squad so will have to wait for his 100th Super League appearance. Winger Jason Qareqare is missing again too, while the suspended Liam Watts and injured captain Paul McShane are still out.

Huddersfield hooker Adam Milner misses out on playing against his former club. Milner was sin-binned last week and has picked up a one-match suspension for a high tackle. However, in-form centre Esan Marsters is available after escaping a ban for a dangerous throw.

Huddersfield Giants to win by 1-12 points @ 19/10

Huddersfield enjoyed three comfortable wins over Castleford last season but this nonetheless feels like the toughest game to call this weekend. Both sides have shown real glimpses of quality over the opening three weeks but ultimately far too much ill-discipline and too many handling errors.

Castleford boss Lingard and his assistant Danny McGuire were enthused by the way their side fought back at Salford a fortnight ago, but were far less impressed with last week’s effort at Warrington. The Tigers took the lead last week but fell away badly and were described as “passive” by their head coach. Lingard will demand a big response here.

But looking at the two squads I see far more quality and depth with Ian Watson’s Huddersfield right now, and I feel that will be enough to see out a hard-fought game in the visitors' favour. At 19/10, the implied chance of a Huddersfield win by 1-12 points is 34%.

Innes Senior anytime tryscorer @ EVS

Not the greatest value this week, but winger Senior has been a real bright spark for this Castleford side and will be fired up to score against his parent club.

The Ireland international crossed the whitewash in that humbling at Warrington last week to get off the mark, and is such a smart finisher he will take even the faintest sniff of a try here to show the Giants exactly what they are missing during his season-long loan.

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