Liam Watts believes Castleford must be pack of strongmen to combat Daryl Clark
Warrington hooker can cause chaos against his old team if Tigers' forwards do not muscle up
LIAM Watts believes if Castleford can control Warrington’s big men then Daryl Clark cannot steal the show on his homecoming.
The hooker has been back towards his best this season, the best that earned him a big money move from Castleford and an England spot in 2014.
But prop Watts believes the threat of Clark’s running game can be stifled if the Tigers’ pack can get on the top of the Wolves’ tonight.
He said: “Deal with their middle players and you deal with Daz.
“If we contain the likes of Chris Hill, Mike Cooper, Ben Murdoch-Masila and Ben Westwood, he’s got nothing to play off the back of.
“Hopefully we can take his running game away.”
Watts, 28, admits he is still learning and adapting after returning to his boyhood club from Hull in March.
And not playing all 80 minutes could do him the world of good after staying on for all of the loss at Wigan.
Watts added: “I just kept looking to the sideline, going, ‘Is someone coming on for me here?’
“It just kept going on and on and on. It got to 60 minutes and I thought, ‘I might as well try and finish the game off.’ The last five or six minutes I was absolutely on my knees.
“But that second half performance was what we should’ve had from the start of the game. We can’t afford another slow start like that as teams we’re coming up against aren’t going to be going easy on us.”