“We haven’t got any halfbacks available” – Daryl Powell bemoans selection headache

It’s fair to say, Castleford Tigers have done it tough in 2021 with injuries and COVID, so the latest news that the Tigers had made three loan signings for tomorrow’s fixture against Huddersfield didn’t come as a surprise.

And, Powell has given his thanks to Hull KR and Featherstone in that regard.

“We’ve only got one injury – all the rest are COVID-related so it’s a massive issue for us and for the sport,” Powell said.

“We had to play this game so we have to get on with it, but I’m really thankful to the clubs that have helped us in giving us players in Hull KR and Featherstone.

“They have trained with us today and I still think we’ve got a strong team out there – we’ve got some young players and some real good experience as well.

“We haven’t got any halfbacks available which creates its own problems, but we will do our very best.

“We are 100% committed as we always are and we need to win this game which will be a tough ask.”

Powell was ken to get this fixture done because he said his side need more match fitness whilst the club will benefit financially.

“There’s different things why it needed to go ahead – there’s the financial aspect of the game at the moment.

“But, we haven’t played much and that was the issue at Wembley that we hadn’t played enough games.

“We need to win games too as we’re not in the top six at the moment and that’s our main focus, so we need to win games to get this ridiculous win percentage up.”

When asked whether the play-offs would be a realistic target, Powell was adamant it was.

“There’s plenty of games left, we’ve got to believe that’s a realistic target and we’re not that far away.

“It’s difficult to gauge with the percentages but we’ve just got to get ourselves playing well.

“It will help if we can get a consistent team on the field which has been problematic all year for us for different reasons.

“We need to get our team on the field and we know we can play, we can compete with any team in the competition when we have our best team out there.

“The key for us is getting that team out there as often as we can.”