Dorn: There’s no pressure on us

Castleford fullback Luke Dorn believes the Tigers need to win nearly all of their games in the Super 8s to have a chance of reaching Old Trafford but insists there is no pressure on his side.

Castleford are in sixth place, 13 points behind league leaders Hull FC, with seven games of the Super 8s to come.

The Tigers take on the Black and Whites away from home on Friday.
 
“It’s massive [the Hull FC game] and we’ve got to win the majority of our games, a minimum five out of seven,” Dorn admits.

“Wev’e got a good record against Hull, we had a good game against them last time so we’ll go their full of confidence.

“No one really expects us to do anything, which is great for us as there’s no pressure.

“We’re not too bothered about that why not use that as our motivation to be the story of the play offs.

“Something always seems to happen in the play offs, something dramatic. Leeds won the League Leaders in the last seconds and if we can chalk off say three out three in our first ones we can start to put that pressure on the top four.

“The beauty of it is every team is playing the best team in the comp, all the top eight, so there’s not really going to be too many easy games for anyone and hopefully we can get a few slip ups above us and we’ll have a crack.”

Castleford have had to endure a horrific injury toll all season, with the likes of Michael Shenton and Ben Roberts out for virtually the whole year.

Dorn said paid tribute to head coach Daryl Powell and the Tigers coaching staff for dealing with the injury count. 

“We had 14 out last weekend against Wakefield which is incredible,” he said.

“People have questioned externally hows the training and all that but a lot of our injuries are like Shenny with an ACL, nothing you can do to trigger for that.

“Lynchy and Benny have got breaks in their feet, a lot of broken bones and dislocations, it’s not like soft tissue, it’s not like weve got 14 hamstring tears.

“I think I’m probably the only one thats done any muscle damage everything else has been structural stuff.

“I don’t think theres anything you can really do about it. You’re pretty much tip toeing around training thinking oh god who’s gonna go down next.

“Every tackle something seems to happen but I don’t think I’ve ever been involved in a situation like we’re in 14 players out last week.

“It’s phenomenal and testimony to Powelly and the coaches and what we’ve been able to do to finish sixth in the face of that is pretty impressive.”