REIGNING Man of Steel Daryl Clark will step back into The Mend-A-Hose Jungle for the first time as a Warrington Wolves player on Sunday.

The 22-year-old, born and bred in Castleford, was a product of the Tigers’ youth system and helped them to a Challenge Cup final at Wembley last year.

But the hooker, now settled in primrose and blue, insists he and his new teammates are targeting Sunday’s clash with fifth-placed Cas as a ‘must win’ game.

“I’ve been looking forward to it since I moved,” said Clark, who has relocated to Sutton since his move.

“It will be different going back on a different side, but I’m looking forward to it and it’s one I really want to win.

“There’s a four-point gap at the minute so this game is a pretty much ‘must win’ otherwise the gap goes to six.

“It’s a lot more difficult then to try and scrape back the six points, so hopefully we can knock it down to four.”

The Round 23 clash, Wolves’ last before the Super 8s, pits Clark against some old friends, while he also looks forward to playing in-front of the fans he wowed with Man of Steel-winning performances last season.

“I’m still in touch with quite a few of the boys,” he explained. “I’ve known some for seven, eight years as a few in the first team now came through the academy together.

“We played together for a lot of years, so we’re still mates. It’ll be good to go back and play on the other side to a number of guys I came through the system with.

“I’m not sure what to expect from the fans, when I left they were pretty good. There might be a bit of abuse along the way but hopefully overall it’ll be good.”

And the England international should be in a prime position to know what to expect from Daryl Powell’s side.

“They’ve been good the past couple of years with the ball, they throw a lot at you and Powelly has a bit of an attacking mentality,” added Clark.

“They’ve got some good halves and some good finishers in Justin Carney and Denny Solomona.

"So we know they’ll be chucking the ball about and we’ll be working during the week to try and fix that up.”

As for his own form, Clark has impressed in recent weeks and is confident that has coincided with The Wire producing some improved team performances.

“Our forwards the past few weeks have been probably the best they’ve been all year, so that helps,” he said.

“With the team playing a little bit better, I’m going a little bit better. That creates things (at the ruck) as well. So it’s come from us playing well.

“It’s no secret we started pretty slow and lost a few games that maybe we should have won.

"But the past few weeks we’ve started playing some better rugby and hopefully we can turn those performances into wins at the back end of the year.

“I’ve been similar to the team; started a little slow and towards the back end have been picking up a few better performances.

“I want to keep improving as the team does and put us in a good place at the end of the Super 8s."

Clark believes a play-offs spot is still well within Wolves' grasp.

“I’m sure the league will be changing a lot over the next seven or eight games," he said.

"If we get our form to where we want it to be and get a few wins in these Super 8s, then the league can change pretty quickly.”