News

Posted: Tuesday 7th April 2020

Powell pens column on COVID-19

In his monthly column in our club magazine ROAR, Head Coach Daryl Powell gives his thoughts on the coronavirus pandemic and wishes everyone well.

powell header.jpg

You can read April's edition of ROAR for free HERE.

It's quite surreal at the moment writing this piece with no prospect of any games being played in the near future, and indeed with our whole country in a lockdown situation. First and foremost, I would like to thank the Tigers family for your support I wish everyone well during this unprecedented situation that we are faced with.

In our last performance against St Helens I thought we were superb in every department; I had really challenged the players in a number of areas, and they went after those specific elements of our performance in a detailed and aggressive manner. There will no doubt be people who will point to St Helens having lost a couple of games so far this season, however there is no doubt our performance against the Champions was as comprehensive as anyone has put in against them I think since we  beat them in 2017 in the Challenge Cup, also down at The Jungle.

Some of our individual performances were world class, but it was as the team as a whole that I was most impressed with and what we were able to do on the day. Particularly our defensive effort was superb, St Helens are renowned for what they are able to do from a line speed perspective. The fact that we were able to match and beat them in this area said a massive amount for the commitment and desire of our players, to show that we are challengers in every way this season. Alongside this we attacked with a confidence and a belief that allowed us to put a significant amount of pressure on their defensive line, there is no doubt in my mind that with a little bit more accuracy the score line would have been much greater.

As we have no games to look forward to at the moment and indeed the players are not training as a team I thought I'd take this opportunity to explain to you what the boys are doing as it stands to keep themselves ready for when the current situation is over. After finding out that we were unable to train in a group situation we quickly met as a coaching team and outlined the individual needs for every player within our squad in order to maximise our ability to get the best out of this period.

We then gave all our players different pieces of equipment from our gym; the players were then given an individual programme utilising the equipment that they have in order to work on their specific areas of development. Obviously, it requires a great deal of trust between the coaches and the players, but I am supremely confident that our players are so focused they will be applying their programmes to the letter.

No-one knows what will happen as we move through and out of this crisis that the whole world is faced with at the moment, I hope that when things do get back to normality that rugby league as a sport and of course Castleford Tigers as a club will continue to grow and thrive as both so truly deserve.

Once again stay safe, and I look forward to seeing you when we get back on track.

Daryl