Richardson learning a lot from former halves Powell, Sheridan and Orr

New Castleford scrum-half Danny Richardson says the opportunity to work with Castleford’s coaching staff of three ex-halfbacks was one of the main reasons he joined the club.

Tigers head coach Daryl Powell was a stand-off in his playing days with clubs including Leeds, Sheffield and Balmain, while assistants Ryan Sheridan and Danny Orr were both scrum-halves with over 650 games-worth of experience between them.

It comes as no surprise, therefore, that when he heard the club were interested, Richardson jumped at the chance to sign.

“If there was anywhere I could improve my game, it would be here,” he said. “They’ve been challenging for silverware in recent years and have the added bonus of Powelly as head coach and Shez (Sheridan) and Danny as the assistants.

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“I’ve been working closely with Shez and he’s reminding me all the time to keep running the ball.

“As a scrum-half growing up, you’re taught the game management side of things but sort of forget your natural instincts, which are essentially just running with the ball and being a threat yourself.

“Obviously I can’t neglect the kicking, passing and organising side because I’m a halfback and that’s my job, but at times I think you’ll see me as more of a running threat and just taking teams on to see if I can make something happen.”

All eyes will be on the 23-year-old as he takes to the field in his new colours against Toronto this Sunday, and not least because of who he will be lining up next to.

Alongside Jake Trueman, Richardson forms one half of British rugby league’s most exciting and promising halves pairings in years, and says he is already beginning to gel with the 2018 Young Player of the Year.

“We were slowly building up until Christmas, then Truey went with Great Britain,” he added. “But since we’ve been back after Christmas I feel like we’ve just totally clicked. We know each other’s games now.

“I’m not expecting us to be doing anything too crazy come round one and I still think it’s going to take a while to get used to each other in game situations but I think once we can get that going we’ll do well.”