Richardson on Saints reunion win

The Tigers’ halfback praised his teammates for a ‘massive effort’ as Cas secured a memorable victory over the 2019 Betfred Super League champions St Helens by 28-14 at The Mend-A-Hose Jungle on Sunday afternoon. Straight off the pitch castlefordtigers.com asked Danny how he felt about his own performance against his old side.

“I’m buzzing, obviously it’s a game that I’ve been looking forward to since I’ve come here, and it was a massive effort from the boys today. We knew they were going to come for us for 80 minutes and I feel like we had a full 80-minute performance there. Minus a few little hiccups here or there it was a great team performance,” Richardson said.

WATCH – The full match replay of Castleford vs St Helens on Tigers TV

The Fords started the game on the front foot and Richardson was impressed with his team’s effort on and off the ball with the Tigers working hard within both the forwards and backs.

“The way we moved it in the first half I feel like that caused them real problems and we’ve got lads all over the park that have got great skill so we put that on show and then to back it up our defensive effort was really solid.”

Both Richardson and fellow 2020 recruit Derrell Olpherts have been integral parts of the Fords right-edge so far this season which has seen plenty of scoring success, it marks a change from recent years for Cas’ traditionally strong left-edge. Right winger Olpherts has now scored six tries in the opening seven games, including two against the Saints and Danny is pleased with how that side of the Tigers attack is developing.

“On the right you’ve got me, D (Olpherts), Peanut (Mata’utia) he’s in a new position to previous years and Mikey (McMeeken) who is coming back in, we’ve looked good but the more games we can play together the more we can understand how each other plays and get even more comfortable with one another other.”

Three wins from three home matches at The Mend-A-Hose Jungle means that Daryl Powell’s side are in good form but the season has been suspended until April 3rd initially to deal with COVID-19 better known as coronavirus. Unlike most sports that had cancelled events due to the pandemic rugby league carried on this past week, but Sunday’s thrilling clash may be the last of ‘regular rugby league’ for a little while.

Headed into the St Helens match the Tigers did not know perhaps when they would take to the field at Wheldon Road again, Danny and the team knew it was therefore important to get a win and do it by playing entertaining rugby in front of the Fords faithful.

“That might be our last game for a while, who knows but we knew that heading in and that’s why it was massively important for us to put in a performance like that and get a win so you know you’re not potentially waiting round for weeks to come with a loss hanging over your head. There’s not a lot we can do to control it and we’ll just get told whether the games are on or off, but we know we can prepare for whoever is next on the back of a win and go into it with some confidence.”

The RFL and Super League today announce a suspension of fixtures in the Betfred Super League season, initially until 3rd April, during which time the season’s structure and fixture rescheduling will be considered. READ all about the season suspension here.

*** Any further updates or changes will be posted on the club website and social media channels to keep supporters abreast of the situation. ***