The RFL

Former New Zealand international Awen Guttenbeil will discover around 8pm on Sunday night whether his huge gamble in coming to England has paid off.

The vastly-experienced forward agreed to join Castleford Tigers from New Zealand Warriors while they were still in the engage Super League and looking good to stay there.

But the Tigers’ fortunes took a horrid late-season twist and he had to think long and hard before committing himself to the club once their relegation fate was sealed.

In the end, he decided to fulfil his obligations and is now hoping to reap the rewards by helping Castleford regain their engage Super League status at the expense of Widnes in Sunday’s Co-operative National League One Grand Final at Headingley Carnegie.

“Promotion and relegation is not something I’ve experienced before and probably when I signed I didn’t really understand how big a deal it is,” Guttenbeil said.

“It is a huge challenge and I enjoy challenges. When I decided to come to Castleford, it was to get into this game and play my part in getting the club back into Super League.

“It was a big decision to come. There were a lot of other options but I chose to come here.
“Part of it was that I get to dabble in the coaching side of things and I’ve enjoyed that this year.

“I guess on Sunday I’ll let you know whether it was the right decision or not.

“It’s been more challenging than I thought, probably mentally, to play at this level every week. It gets frustrating at times because you take a step back to try to develop the team.

“But the last couple of months is when we’ve been wanting to peak and I’ve really enjoyed the last two months.”

Promotion and relegation issues are nothing new to Widnes Vikings coach Steve McCormack, who was sacked by Salford when they were facing the drop in 2001.

He will be involved in a fourth successive League One Grand Final, having twice taken Whitehaven to the brink of the engage Super League before losing out with Widnes 12 months ago when they were beaten by Hull KR.

• back