WOLVES centre Toa Kohe-Love is receiving great raps for his form at the start of the 1999 season.

The 22-year-old set Wilderspool alight on Sunday with a glittering display that put paid to Castleford Tigers' unbeaten opening to the campaign.

He scored two touch downs and dazzled every time he received the ball to leave his delighted coach Darryl Van de Velde beaming: "He's on fire!"

Kohe-Love, who joined the Wolves in 1996, has scored tries in each of Warrington's games so far this season and his tally of six touch downs in five games is already higher than his five in 14 last year.

The New Zealander always had the better of Castleford's former Wolves centre Mike Eagar on Sunday.

Afterwards Eagar, Kohe-Love's centre partner for most of last year, said: "It was a very one-sided battle and Toa got through to score two tries. I know all about his step but he caught me flat-footed every time.

"Toa's looking really sharp. He steps both ways, is very elusive and it is very hard to defend against him."

Kohe-Love's centre partner so far this year has been Alan Hunte.

Great Britain star Hunte said: "Toa's in tremendous form and it's good to see from a team point of view.

"In a game that was probably not the best of spectacles he was the one player who really stood out and thoroughly deserved his man of the match award.

"In games like that it takes something special to win it and Toa came up with a couple of flashes of brilliant footwork and pace to go over for two tries."

Castleford coach Stuart Raper was disappointed with his team's poor ball handling and defensive misses and added: "You can't do that when you've got someone like Kohe-Love on fire like he was - he made us look very ordinary!"

Van de Velde added his tribute: "He's a great player. You just can't coach what he's got - he has natural flair and quick feet and showed some really good stuff against Castleford. We've got to get the ball to him more often."

Kohe-Love said his form comes on the back of the spirit and confidence of the players around him.

He added: "I feel very happy with the way things are going at the moment.

"The atmosphere is good, the team spirit is good and it helps me to concentrate on my part of the game. If everyone's doing their own job, you can afford to focus on your own role whereas in the past we've all been worried about each other's jobs and I have not had chance to use what I've got."

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.