Hull KR vs Castleford Tigers Prediction: Champs to go big again in six-for-six bid

Betfred Super League champions Hull KR are beginning to look ominous, and their red-hot form should continue when they welcome Castleford Tigers to Sewell Group Craven Park on Thursday night (Kick off 8pm).

The Robins have scored 142 points in their last 240 minutes of rugby and are huge favourites against a Tigers side who conceded half a century at home last weekend. My Hull KR vs Castleford Tigers predictions follow below, with the latest team news and Betfred's match odds.

Hull KR vs Castleford Tigers Odds

The quadruple champions are a restrictive 1/80 for the win, such big favourites are they. Cas can be backed for the win at 14/1, while it's 50/1 for a repeat of the draw in normal time in Round 1 last year at Craven Park which led to a Mikey Lewis drop-goal winner in extra-time.

Team News

Rovers have benefited from a relatively stable squad in recent weeks, with boss Willie Peters making a couple of changes this time.

French prop Jordan Dezaria failed a head injury assessment in the 48-12 win at Bradford Bulls, while Bill Leyland heads back to St Helens for a week after his Good Friday heroics on his last loan stint. The two men to come in are centre Oliver Gildart - who missed out with a minor injury last week - and Jack Charles. Young back-row forward Tom Whitehead keeps his place in the 21. Rhyse Martin deputised in the centres for Gildart last week and will revert to the back row or bench should the latter be passed fit.

Castleford's team news is slightly more interesting, with a couple of new faces arriving in West Yorkshire this week. Former Wigan Warriors prop Tyler Dupree has been signed from Toulouse, while another arrival from France is full-back Phoenix Laulu-Togaga'e after the surprise early end to his first season at Catalans Dragons. PLT's family and friends are all in West Yorkshire so the move does make sense for personal reasons.

Cas boss Ryan Carr has also dipped into the loan market, with Leeds Rhinos youngster Tom Nicholson-Watton another new face in the 21-man squad. Also back in the mix are forward Jimmy Beckett after a loan at Sheffield, and utility Cain Robb, who is yet to feature this season.

The men to make way are the banned George Lawler, hooker Liam Hood and forward George Hirst, who failed his HIA in that 50-10 home loss to Hull FC. Semi Valemei, Jenson Windley and Jack Ashworth also drop out.

Rugby League Odds

Hull KR -30.5 & Joe Burgess To Score A Try @ 13/8

Hull KR are not only easing up through the gears after a disrupted start to the year, but they have a commanding home record against this week's opponents. Rovers have won their last seven home games against Cas dating back over five years and there is very little to suggest that purple patch won't continue here.

Cas may have produced a shock win at Wigan a couple of weeks ago but I feel there is a big gulf in class between these two squads and little or no chance of a repeat upset here.

In the outright betting with Betfred the Robins are 1/80 to win. The handicap is a walloping 30 points, and the first-half handicap is set at 13.5. In short, there are not many living beings on the planet who believe it worthwhile for Tigers fans to fill their cars up with petrol on Friday.

The handicap for Hull KR was 34 at Bradford last week and they passed it - just - earning a 36-point win with eight tries spread equally either side of half-time. Half-back Tyrone May also returned for our followers in the anytime scorer market, with a juicy 7/4 win.

It should be more of the same this week. Cas are a better team than Bradford and the signings of Dupree and PLT are both excellent in my opinion. The latter is a player I know very well and he will add real spark to the Tigers attack. But even with a freshened-up squad, the visitors will lose this game with a bit to spare.

I'm backing a similar scoreline for KR as last week, and with it a sixth straight win in all competitions. Five victories in a row have come with only 38 points conceded - that's 7.6 per game against. A massive 218 have been scored by Rovers in that time at an average of 43.6 points per victory.

So everything points to another win by upwards of 30, and I'm throwing winger Joe Burgess into the mix to score too for a little added value. Burgess has nine tries in his last six games.

Tyrone May Anytime Tryscorer @ 9/4

We have backed Rovers half-back Tyrone May in the last two weeks, and he returned last week at 7/4 having come very close at 11/4 the previous week.

May is a 9/4 chance to score again this week and is a man in form alongside Mikey Lewis.

Lewis was the star man last week as he helped himself to four tries in a devastating display. Lewis is as short as 2/5 to cross anytime this week, with an 11/2 on Lewis to run in the game's first try - as he did last week - perhaps the value option.

Castleford are not predicted to do too much damage here, but our headline last weekend of "Double-double for Mapapalangi" was absolutely on the money, as the Tigers flyer did indeed score a brace of tries for the second successive week, rewarding our 6/4 backers in the process. He would be my pick again at 9/4 for the visitors.

You could once again make a strong claim for half the Rovers team scoring this week. I'm sticking with May and Burgess as my selections.

Find more Rugby League Betting Tips here at Betfred Insights