Dorn not giving up on Tigers’ top four hopes

Correspondent

Castleford full-back Luke Dorn says the Tigers aren’t throwing in the towel of making the top four after going down to Huddersfield on Thursday night.

The Giants ran out 40-26 winners, putting Castleford in fifth spot and now four points behind both Huddersfield and St Helens. The Tigers will now need to win their remaining three games and hope other results go their way.

“There’s no need to panic, as long as there’s a chance,” Dorn said.

“Two points is nothing. If we beat Saints then it’s back to two points. If Huddersfield trip up it starts to get a bit twitchy around the end and as we’ve seen in the Super 8s any result can come at any time and any club can get beat.

“So if one of the teams above us has a bad run of form we’re right back in it.”

Dorn admits the 14-point loss to the Giants, who they faced without Michael Shenton, Jake Webster and Justin Carney, was a blow.

“We spoke about a few things that we needed to get right,” the 33-year old said.

“Going up against Huddersfield we’d played pretty much the perfect semi-final football, we had done for the last month. We knew we weren’t going to get a lot of opportunities and we had to take everything.

“That’s why semi-finals are all about isn’t it. We did that early, we took our two tries, they were pretty simple just off the back of possession and territory. Then the sin-bin really cost us. It put us under the pump and we panicked.

“We didn’t handle that very well and it put us in a bad situation. Then we rallied back and I thought we were a chance of grabbing it again, we were certainly extremely confident at half-time. But we just couldn’t get there in the end.”

Castleford host Saints at the Jungle this Thursday in a must-win game.

“They’ll be coming to our joint, we’ll be confident,” Dorn said.

“Anything can happen. If we beat them next week we’re square and then it’s back in our hands a little bit again and we’ve got two big games to finish off with. That’s sort of how it sits at the moment.

“We’re disappointed we didn’t get the job done on Thursday night and could have put a bit more heat on Huddersfield and then Saints. But that’s the way it is. We’ve taken it a little bit out of our hands but we’re going to fight right till the end.”

Photo courtesy of Matthew Merrick Photography