few weeks back I happened, by chance, to bump into Darryl powell in a pub near York.
talking RL I said cas were playing some great stuff but the crunch would come when they had high pressure games later in the year when they had to grind out wins. I wondered if they could adapt.
he grinned and said he agreed and said he hoped they would.

thing is you don't win anything in may sal.

the side with the least key injuries will win it for me

I hoped for anyone but castleford and a tough draw for them. They are the team to beat st the moment and the one to avoid in the cup, sadly can't avoid them next week.

The side that can perform on the day will win it - how many times have Leeds failed to really show up in final - losing 6 winnable finals suggests it isn't about injuries.

did cas turn up against leeds? will cas beat hull even?
i'm confident if we get there we'll give anyone a game

Me too, but for now I'm looking forward to taking on our DR partners in the quarter final, and I'm sure we'll be giving them 100% respect.

(I'm a Fev fan, btw)

You pop up every couple of weeks to try and put a downer on the club. I've tried to understand why, but I'm really at a loss. Has BM got some photos?

Yes I think they did - they were huge underdogs on the day - the result of that final like the one against Hull KR was not a huge shock.

Wih regards to Cas, my mind goes back to Warrington in 2011. They just strolled past teams most weeks and they hadn't had a close contest in the 7/8 weeks prior to that playoff SF vs us at the HJ. When that close tight contest came they were undone by a team that had been scraping in close games most of the year. Big comfortable wins are great but whether it be a semi or a final if they get there they will eventually end up in a game that's tight and goes down to the death. There away form suggests they can't as easily replicate what they do at home to other pitches which are presumably bigger than the Jungle.

Yeah it's not like Hull are the CURRENT cup holders or anything.

no they didn't. they were totally overawed. it was a comfortable win.

Absolutely.

I think the CC is starting to present our best chance of silverware this year TBH. I'm still to be sold on Cas, excellent team and brand of rugby but Semis and finals are different kettle of fish to regular season games at wheldon road.

I agree. I think the cup is very winnable for us this year.

Yes, that's an obvious statement. You've got to the semi final with 3 home byes in theory. "The cup is very winnable for us this season"... as we only need to beat 2 full time teams. Tomorrow is Monday too.