A FINE win at Cas and a cup clash with Hull FC to look forward to, Mike Critchley caught up with Justin Holbrook.

MC: That was pretty convincing on Thursday?

JH: I was really happy. It is tough to go there twice in three weeks, but to play as well as we did was really pleasing.

MC: There was a spell in the first half where the pack, particularly Dom Peyroux and Luke Thompson, marmalised Cas into submission.

JH: I thought our whole forward pack played really well and off the back of that Jonny did some great things for us.

Everyone stood up really well.

MC: There was a real smile of satisfaction on Jonny’s face after some of those big plays.

JH: He plays equally well at one and six and showed that on Thursday. I am really pleased for him because he works really hard on his game.

MC: Did you sense a renewed determination from Jonny when he came back from the World Cup - given some questioned where he would fit in?

JH: I was always confident that wherever we would put him that he would do a great job.

In particular the last few weeks he has been very good for us a five-eighth.

MC: Is Ben Barba OK?

JH: He is. He obviously picked up a couple of knocks and a slight knee issue but he will be fine by Sunday.

MC: It seemed surreal that Barba’s majestic execution was contrasted with a crescendo of boos every yard of the way to the line.

JH: It was an awesome try and a special play from Benny.

Confident players back themselves. For him to run the length like that was a big effort and that probably took a fair bit out of Cas.

It happened a couple of weeks earlier too, and that knocked them about a bit.

Special players know what they can and cannot do 99 per cent of the time.

Benny has been doing that his whole life. It was brilliant to watch.

MC: How is Tommy Makinson?

JH: He is right to go this week.

He hurt his arm at the back end of the game at Magic and that was slightly sore.

And then he had a bit of a bang on his knee too.

He could have played, but we did not decide until the day before

Tommy had been enormous for us every week, and we had Swifty knocking on the door - and he is a quality player. So we had that luxury of giving him a week off and Tommy is 100 per cent ready for this week.

MC: You have had the luxury of a nine-day turnaround, what have you done differently?

JH: It does alter because it allows the players more recovery time. We have had a lot of games in a short space of time.

It is important that we stay patient in games with a long turnaround. You cannot throw too much at the players mentally with the game being so far away. It is a slower build up, recovery followed by a ramping up later in the week.

MC: Hull have injuries, but their pack is still pretty formidable.

JH: Hull have a very good pack. They will have Scott Taylor back too.

They are very strong pack and they have got some keen backs.

They have some key players missing - and I am not denying that at all.

But they will provide a tough game for us on Sunday.

MC: Back-to-back cup holders don’t roll over, do they?

JH: Exactly right, but we will be ready for that.