Terry Matterson will lead his team into Rugby League’s unknown when they head off to Cardiff for this weekend’s 2008 engage Super League Millennium Magic event.

The Tigers were not in the engage Super League when last year’s inaugural event was staged in the Welsh capital so their meeting with neighbours and arch-rivals Wakefield Wildcats on Saturday is going to be a bit special by any standards.

“It’s going to be a great experience for our players and fans,” said Matterson shortly after the club’s defeat to Catalans.  “We came up a bit short in France but were very competitive against the Dragons while the Wildcats came back well in the second half of their game against Harlequins so all the ingredients are there for a great encounter.

“We’ve been playing some great footy and we were in with a shout in Perpignan until the last few minutes.

“And if you also consider that we’ve not been that far away in some of our other league fixtures then it’s fair to say that we are looking forward to our meeting with Wildcats.”

The Tigers, like so many other engage Super League clubs, have had to contend with a number of injuries this season and they picked up another potential problem in France when Peter Lupton suffered what a suspected cheekbone fracture.

 “We’ve been working our butts off to strengthen our squad and we’re hopeful that Ned Catic will have his work permit through in time to include him in our squad for Saturday.

“At the same time we’re hopeful that Awen Guttenbeil, Luke Dorn and Craig Huby will be back in contention after injuries while Michael Wainwright, who didn’t travel to France because his wife is expecting a baby, should be available.”

As the result of having to cope with injuries to his front line troops Matterson has had to blood many of his ‘Tiger Cubs’. He says: “You wouldn’t necessarily choose to have so many young lads in the side at the same time normally but we didn’t have any choice.

“This club is still recovering from being relegated twice in the last four years and at least we can now concentrate on developing our team by giving these young guys a chance; I know they’re going to make mistakes but that’s what has to happen.”

The Tigers are now focussing on their tussle with the Wildcats.

 These engage Super League rivals are separated by a little almost nine miles of former Yorkshire coalfield and their rivalry is intense. It won’t matter to them that Saturday’s encounter will be in Cardiff. Local bragging rights are still up for grabs.

Two seasons ago the Tigers were relegated after being beaten at Wakefield in their last game of the regular 2006 season. Going down was a sickener for the Tiger fans but to have it delivered by the Wildcats just added salt to the open wound.

The Tigers were promoted back to the engage Super League at the end of the 2007 season after they beat Widnes Vikings in The Co-operative National League Grand Final and they’ve still to find their feet in the 2008 engage Super League with just two wins from 12 outings thus far. But now on Saturday there’s more excitement because they make their debut at the Millennium Stadium.

“We watched the Millennium Magic games on television last year,” said Matterson. “Now we’re going to experience it for ourselves.

 "It came across well on television and it looked fantastic. We’re really looking forward to the occasion.”

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