St Helens embarrassed Castleford in the opening round of Super League and also humbled the Tigers at the Jungle in the Challenge Cup sixth round. Now, the two sides will meet tomorrow night in an eagerly anticipated game broadcast live on Sky Sports.
Bogey team
St Helens are renowned for being Castleford's bogey team in Super League. Barring 2017 - when the Tigers beat the Saints three times out of four, including the nailbiting Super League semi-final in September - St Helens have almost been guaranteed a victory whenever they played the Tigers whether at the Jungle or Knowsley Road/Langtree Park.
In fact, the last time that Castleford beat Saints on the Lancashire club's own patch was in 1992 and the Tigers have won just three of their last ten matches against them. But, all those three came at home and it is no surprise that Castleford have won over double the amount of games they have lost at home so far this season (five to two).
Castleford are a different animal at home in front of their vociferous support and many a team struggle on a pitch where the crowd is almost on top of the players. The last time St Helens visited the Jungle - just two weeks ago in the Challenge Cup - the crowd was a mere 5,342.
In terms of the rest of the Challenge Cup fixtures this figure was nothing to be frowned upon, but in with regards to the crowds that the Tigers usually pull in for Super League home games - Castleford's last home fixture against Wakefield drew just shy of 7,500 spectators - the intimidating atmosphere was just not there. And, as Saints went into the break with a 12-0 lead, the Castleford faithful had lost their voice almost altogether.
Night game
Although it is a Thursday night game live on Sky - which will inevitably lower the gate - off the back of a superb 38-10 victory against bitter rivals Leeds at the Magic Weekend, Castleford fans are likely to return in their droves. The atmosphere is likely to be completely different to the one which saw Saints score 36 points on the Jungle turf and the Castleford players will be able to feed off of that.
Add into the mix a Castleford side that are purring after their drubbing of Leeds in Newcastle and St Helens cannot take this game lightly - not that coach Justin Holbrook is going to.
Wising up to Saints
Ben Barba is on almost every single Rugby League fan's lips at the moment and the Tigers will have to go all out to shut him down. But, against Widnes, St Helens looked vulnerable and a better side would have punished them. Saints started the season like a house on fire - much like Castleford did in 2017 - and are still one of the most dangerous sides in the league, but they are not unbeatable.
Ben Roberts is back in the fold for the Tigers which is good news for head coach Daryl Powell following injuries to Joe Wardle and Jake Webster.
That means that Michael Shenton is likely to drop back into his preferred centre position with Jamie Ellis and Jake Trueman still in the halves. Shenton performed well at the Magic Weekend after two disappointing games previously and looked to be getting in the groove at fullback. In fact, the whole Tigers team looked to be back in the groove and, determined to take revenge on a Saints side that has already taken them to the cleaners twice, Castleford will not be humiliated this time.