Preview: 2024 Super League Round 9: Castleford Tigers vs London Broncos
The London Broncos have their fourth Super League away game of 2024 on Friday as they face off against Castleford Tigers at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle. This is the first game that the Broncos have played against Castleford since 10th August 2019, where the Tigers walked away 20-6 victors in front of a crowd of 5,497 at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle. Click here to read the full in-depth history of the London Broncos vs Castleford Tigers fixture!
The Broncos have had a difficult beginning to their 2024 Super League campaign, losing their first 8 games to St Helens Saints (40-4, click here to read the full match report), Catalans Dragons (0-34, click here to read the full match report) Hull FC (28-24, click here to read the full match report), Wigan Warriors (22-60, click here to read the full match report), Warrington Wolves (4-58, click here to read the full match report), Huddersfield Giants (6-26, click here to read the full match report), Hull KR (50-10, click here to read the full match report) & Salford Red Devils (4-12, click here to read the full match report).
Castleford have also played eight games so far this season and are currently sat in 10th place after winning 1 (36-24 vs Salford Red Devils) and losing 7 (4-32 vs Wigan Warriors, 26-22 vs Salford Red Devils, 30-8 vs Warrington Wolves, 8-50 vs Huddersfield Giants, 40-14 vs Catalans Dragons, 6-26 vs Leeds Rhinos & 36-14 vs Wigan Warriors) games so far this season.
Speaking ahead of our Round 9 clash on Friday, Castleford Tigers coach Craig Lingard says "There is a great opportunity in this next game for us to build some momentum, but we don’t want to look too far ahead- our focus is on Friday.
“I thought last week that we were a lot more competitive in individual areas throughout the game. The challenge for us this game and all season is that we need to do this for longer and if we do that for the full 80 minutes, we should be alright but if we’re off in any part of the game against London, they are good enough to get the win”.
WATCH THE HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY AT CASTLEFORD
Also ahead of this Friday’s fixture, we caught up with Broncos assistant coach Jordie Hedges who says “It’s a massive game. It’s a chance for us to get our first win of the season and we’re really looking forward to it.
“There were loads of positives from last week. Salford are a very good team, and we are happy to come away with a better defensive effort than prior, but we want to take that to the next level and hopefully this week we can turn that into a victory.
“(from pre-season) both teams have had loads of changes, but it stands us in good stead. We know how they play and where they want to play. I know they’ve got a few new boys in this week, but we’ve had a good look at them as well so hopefully we can put it all together and it’ll be a good day for us”.
Looking currently at the league table and the position we find ourselves 9 weeks into the Super League season it really cannot be overstated enough how important that it is for us to go to the Mend-A-Hose Jungle and leave with our first two points of the season on the league table. This is a Castleford team which we drew to in pre-season and is certainly one of the biggest games which we are going to have this season for our survival.
However, we are coming up against a Tigers team with fresh faces ready to hit the ground running and a crowd full of passionate supporters who are undoubtably going to create a fierce atmosphere for the boys to face up against. The key for the Broncos this week is to start strong and make sure that we are silencing the crowd and killing the atmosphere. If we manage to do this successfully from the start of the match, there is no reason as to why we can’t leave Wheldon Road and head back to London with a huge win.
Ways to watch/listen to the game!
TV: Super League+ & Sky Sports Mix!
Live match updates: Twitter (@londonbroncosrl)
