Orr's confidence thrives with increased responsibility

Castleford's achievement in reaching the Super League play-offs this weekend has been a triumph for the unlikely lads, led by a captain who has finally shown that he can impose himself on the opposition at this level.

When the Castleford coach, Graham Steadman, appointed Danny Orr there were doubts voiced over whether the young skipper would thrive on the responsibility. Those questions have been answered: not only have Cas made a successful late charge for the play-offs, but Orr himself has been voted the best stand-off in the country on this season's form.

"I don't really think it has made that much difference to me," he says. "I've got Mitch Healey alongside me and, if things aren't going too well, you always hear from him. I used to play with Adrian Vowles and, when he was Castleford captain, he always used to be able to come up with something a bit special to lift the players around him. That's all I try to do. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't."

Orr would admit that it has happened more often for Cas towards the end of the season than it did at the beginning. "We started very slowly and didn't do ourselves any favours," he says. "But in the second half of the season we've picked up some good wins and we're playing with confidence."

Much of that confidence springs from his own contribution. Left out of Great Britain's squad for the ill-fated trip to Australia in July, he must be in with a chance of making the team against New Zealand this autumn.

Orr merely says he will see what happens, but another of Castleford's success stories this season, the new Kiwi candidate, Michael Smith, is adamant he should play.

And in Steadman, an assistant to David Waite with the Great Britain squad, Orr has an ally in the camp. "There are some people in high places who believe that, physically, Danny is not an international player," he says. "It's not a view I agree with."

Qualifying for the play-offs with Castleford has given him a stage on which to shine before the squad is whittled down, starting with tonight's match at Wigan.

It is by no means a venture into the unknown for Orr. Three years ago, as a young player of 21, he was in the Castleford side that spoiled the party in the first game at the JJB Stadium, knocking Wigan out of the play-offs at the same stage. "I have good memories of that and, in some ways, the situation this year is similar. We were the underdogs and everyone had written us off, but we went there and put in our best performance of the season. We will have to do something very similar on Saturday."

Castleford's chances of doing that depend not just on the way Orr, Healey and another influential Australian, Wayne Bartrim, can control midfield, but also on having the strike-power to take advantage of a Wigan backline which is well below optimum strength. That is where Orr believes his side could have a trump card in a player at a similar stage of development to his own three years ago.

At the start of this season, Waine Pryce – cousin of Bradford and Great Britain's Leon – looked more of a liability than an asset in his occasional first team games, with a propensity for mistakes under the kick that would bring a glint to the eye of players like Adrian Lam, Andy Farrell and Julian O'Neill. That is no longer the case. "There's been a massive improvement," says Orr. "He's a totally different player. He's always had the potential, but earlier in the season he was under a lot of pressure.

"He's come back from that, thanks to working really hard at his game. He's always asking me and Mitch to put up some kicks for him after everyone else has finished training. The result is that he's now the form winger in Super League."

Bringing through bright, new talent like Pryce - a candidate for Super League's Young Player of the Year - is one of the satisfactions of being a senior player at his hometown club. Another would be turning the clock back by maintaining Castleford's momentum and eliminating Wigan again this evening.