The Eden projectile
MUCH WAS made of Denny Solomona’s record 42 tries for Castleford last season, but the man signed to replace him is threatening to rewrite history.
Greg Eden has touched down a remarkable 33 times in 20 appearances for the Super League leaders following his close-season arrival from NRL side Brisbane Broncos.
When Solomona jumped ship and made a bitter cross-code move to Sale Sharks last year – finally ended by an out-of-court settlement of more than £200,000 last week – Daryl Powell turned to Eden to fill his left flank.
Castleford born and bred and a product of the club’s vaunted academy system, Eden is chiselled from a slightly different stone to Solomona.
But his lethal finishing skills have helped Powell’s exhilaratingly hightempo side to sit six points clear at the Super League summit and encouraged hopes of eclipsing Solomona’s feats.
“It would be great to pull it off and set a new record,” said Eden yesterday at Castleford’s Wheldon Road stadium. “Winning a trophy is more important, but it would be nice if it happened.
“The good thing is that we have still got plenty of games left and I’m not that far away.” Eden,
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who has scored five hat-tricks in his last seven outings, has supported Castleford since childhood and joined them at scholarship level aged 12.
He then had spells at Huddersfield and Hull KR before the opportunity came to join Brisbane on a two-year deal ahead of the 2015 campaign.
Eden said: “A guy called Pete Nolan rang me up and asked me if I wanted to sign for Brisbane Broncos. I thought it was a joke at first but it wasn’t and Hull KR agreed to release me, so I sold my car, rented out the house I had just bought and moved out to Australia.”
During a spell at Wynnum Manly Seagulls, Brisbane’s feeder club, Eden scored 17 tries in 22 games in 2015 and then got his NRL chance for the Broncos in March 2016, playing his part in a victory over Parramatta.
“I ended up making seven appearances last season but I got a knee injury in round 10 and that kept me out for 12 weeks,” he said.
“I struggled to get back in after that, but I’m definitely a better player for the experience and a better person too.”
Castleford were dumped out of the Challenge Cup by Hull last weekend but Eden has targeted Grand Final glory, a place in England’s World Cup squad and, of course, that tryscoring record.
He added: “Everyone keeps asking me, ‘How many are you going to score this week?’
“Whatever chances you get, you have to take them.”