Warrington Wolves will be looking to maintain their unbeaten start to the Super League season when they take on Castleford Tigers on Saturday afternoon.
The Wolves are one of just two sides boasting 100 per cent records so far this season, with Wigan Warriors, who have played a game more, being the only other team to have won all of their games.
St Helens, Wakefield Trinity and York Knights have all been conquered and as Warrington prepare for round five, they’ll fancy their chances of seeing off Castleford this weekend.
The Tigers have started the season slowly, with just one win coming from their opening four games, and they come into the contest after being handed a heavy defeat by St Helens in the Challenge Cup last time out.
They’ll be determined to show what they can do at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, but the odds are firmly stacked against them.
Ahead of the contest, though, we’ve taken a look at the early Warrington and Castleford team news.
Warrington Wolves team news
Sam Burgess has already confirmed that powerful prop Toafofoa Sipley will miss the next six to eight weeks with knee and calf issues.
“Toff will be eight weeks – it was a bad tackle,” Burgess said in his pre-match press conference.
“He hurt his knee in the tackle that was a bit of a hip drop, so he was carrying that and then pulled his calf.
“It’s his left knee and his right calf but it is what it is – he’s okay about it and has just got to get his head down.”
That setback comes just a week after the loss of Cai Taylor-Wray to a hamstring issue.
Arron Lindop, Oli Leyland, Adam Holroyd and Zack Gardner have been out with long-term issues and are yet to make a return. However, Matty Ashton is expected to return to the fold this week after making a full recovery from the ACL injury he suffered last year.
Burgess has also confirmed Jordy Crowther is available to play this week.
Castleford Tigers team news
Castleford fans will be desperate to see Semi Valemei in action following the injury he picked up in pre-season. He was named in last week’s squad, but never featured with Ryan Carr suggesting that he might be fit enough to feature against the Wolves, this weekend.
Krystian Mapapalangi will miss the clash and that will come as a huge blow for the Tigers. The centre, who has been Castleford’s best player so far, failed a HIA last weekend following Kyle Feldt’s high shot.
Blake Taaffe will miss the remainder of the season, while Louis Senior, Cain Robb, Alex Mellor and Fletcher Rooney have all been struggling with issues, too.
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