Castleford Tigers are braced for the best of Wigan Warriors after learning the hard way that the Challenge Cup kings do not do hangovers.
The Warriors claimed a 21st cup win at Wembley last Saturday and celebrated long into the weekend, prompting some to suggest that it is a good time to play Matt Peet’s side.
Castleford were perhaps guilty of falling into that trap in 2022 when Wigan backed up their Tottenham victory over Huddersfield Giants with a resounding win at Wheldon Road.
That game has been discussed by Craig Lingard’s squad this week ahead of a fourth meeting of the year between the teams.
“I don’t think it’ll affect them at all,” said Lingard, whose side were emphatically beaten in the previous three matches.
“You look at the number of cups that Wigan have won and I would imagine they’ve probably won every game after they’ve played a final.
“We’re not expecting them to come here in any other sort of condition than the best condition they can be in.
“Some of our players have mentioned that Castleford played Wigan two years ago after they won the cup and Wigan put 50 points on them (the Warriors won 32-12).
“We’re preparing for the best version of Wigan. If we prepare for a Wigan team that’s going to come hungover and not prepared to play, we’ll get a nasty surprise.
Lingard is hopeful that Westerman will recover from his Achilles issue in time for next week’s game against Hull KR but the prognosis of McShane’s latest arm injury is less certain.
“Macca is going to the hospital tomorrow (Friday) for an operation to have the pins and plates removed,” said Lingard.
“That one is a bit of an open-ended question. When the specialists have looked at the X-rays and scans, they’re not 100 per cent sure what they are going to find until they get in there.
“It’s one of them where it might be two or three weeks or it might be season-ending. We’re hoping for weeks rather than the season but we’re prepared for either eventuality.”
The Tigers head into the second half of the campaign in 10th position in Super League with clear daylight to the bottom two thanks to a recent upturn in form.
There is no threat of relegation this year and the play-offs appear to be out of Castleford’s reach but Lingard insists they have plenty to play for between now and September.
“We’ve done a review and want to be better than we were in the first half of the season,” he said.
“We’ve had some really good parts but also some really bad parts. I keep saying that the aim and ambition for us is to make sure our good parts are longer and our bad parts are less.
“We’re hoping that over the next half of the season we’re going to see a little bit more consistency. You’ve got to work for that
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