Castleford Tigers vs Leigh Leopards Prediction: Ipape and Leopards to keep up momentum

Castleford Tigers' difficult season faces another tough obstacle as Leigh Leopards come to The Jungle on Saturday looking to strengthen their position in the Betfred Super League top six (kick-off 20:00 BST, live on Sky Sports+).

While Leigh are looking upwards, that is definitely the case for the Tigers, who have only Salford Red Devils and Huddersfield Giants below them in the table after five defeats from six games. Here are my Castleford Tigers vs Leigh Leopards predictions, taking into account Betfred's match odds and the latest team news.

Castleford Tigers vs Leigh Leopards Odds

You can get decent odds against the Tigers picking up their second win of the season in this one. Danny McGuire's side are 23/10 to get the job done against the Challenge Cup semi-finalists, implying a 30.3% probability of Cas doubling their league return so far.

Leigh are 4/11 for the win, while a draw in 80 minutes is available at 18/1.

The bookies aren't expecting a massive Leopards win though, with the two-way handicap marker set at just 7.5 points in Cas' favour. In those conditions, the Tigers are 10/11 and Leigh 5/6.

Team News

Leigh come into this game off the back of a victorious trip to West Yorkshire in which they dumped Wakefield Trinity out of the Betfred Challenge Cup last week, and now head back to face a Castleford side who have had a fortnight off.

Castleford have brought in winger Lee Kershaw on loan from Hull KR and he looks likely to be thrown straight in given that Innes Senior is banned.

There is no Brad Singleton this week but winger Jason Qareqare does return to the 21-man squad. Also included are Liam Horne and Jeremiah Simbiken.

Rugby League Odds

Leigh have Darnell McIntosh in their squad, as he replaces the in-form Umyla Hanley who is struggling with a niggle.

Veteran winger Josh Charnley is named despite doubts over his fitness, while Andrew Badrock replaces Ethan O'Neill.

Handicap 3-way Alternative 1: Leigh -12 @ 6/4

Despite a few injury concerns for Leigh, I don't see any way in which they lose this game. The win at Wakefield in the cup was hard-fought and justified our 11/8 selection with a -4 start last week.

This weekend I think Leigh will find it slightly more comfortable and am looking at Adrian Lam's men to win by a few scores.

The last two meetings between these two sides have both been at The Jungle and saw Leigh win 34-12 and 20-10. In fact, Cas haven't beaten Leigh home or away for four years and I can't see that changing here.

I'm going relatively conservatively on the handicap, purely because the Tigers are a desperate team and desperation can cause strange outcomes.

Edwin Ipape anytime tryscorer @ 5/2

I've been nailed on either David Armstrong or Umyla Hanley for my anytime tryscorer tip in Leopards games this year. Hanley is missing this weekend and Armstrong is just 4/5 to cross in 80 minutes.

So I'm looking further afield at impact hooker Edwin Ipape, one of the most watchable players in Super League. With tired Cas bodies in the last 20, this feels like the kind of broken game that Ipape could thrive upon from dummy half. And at 5/2 with its 28.6% implied probability, I think he's more likely than that to get on the board.

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