News

Posted: Tuesday 6th October 2020

Hepi’s happiness as a Tiger

Tyla Hepi discusses starting in Daryl Powell’s match day line-up, the competitiveness in the squad and feeling settled in the town.

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In Castleford’s first match back at The Mend-A-Hose Jungle in six months, Tyla was told he would be starting against Hull FC, something he is not accustomed to from his time at Toulouse where he played from 2016 up until last season.

“I feel I’m finding my feet in the team and it’s been really good working with the boys and I’m just enjoying my time playing out there at the moment,” Hepi said to castlefordtigers.com.

“When I found I was starting last week I was a little bit taken aback because I haven’t started for about the last four years since I was at Toulouse and I think I only started about three or four games in my whole time there! So I said to Shez (Ryan Sheridan) ‘Whoa bro’ and he said to just keep doing what I’m doing and so I did, it felt good to start and I felt I brought a lot of energy. “

The Fords faithful have taken note of the energy Hepi brings onto the pitch with his high intensity running straight into the faces of opposition sides.

“People keep saying that about me but I’m just trying to do my best and compete in everything I do, that’s all I can do. I think if I do that it’s going to benefit the team.”

A second win following the restart of the season in August has been difficult to come by for the Tigers with agonizingly close or late defeats in recent weeks. Hepi states that the Tigers are developing and learning from this period and continue to work extremely hard.

“If you look at some of the score lines I feel we’ve been unlucky and teams getting us at the back end of games but we’re making do with what we’ve got with key players out and the team getting shuffled differently every week. The combos that boys are making are there one week but gone the next, but we’re all doing our best but falling just short and we are building as a team and I think it is showing on the field just unfortunately without a win in recent games.”

Two Tigers catching the eye in recent weeks are Tyla himself and youngster Jacques O’Neill, both of whom have actively competed with one another since the first day of the pre-season. But Hepi reiterates that the whole squad compete against one another to get into Daryl Powell’s starting line-up.

“Me and Jacques have been competing not just against each other but against everyone else to get in the team, it’s been like that all year and we’ve all been competitors in training and I think it’s only going to be good for the team in general going forward really. Everyone is in the same boat and we want the same goals.”

Off the field, Tyla is more settled too after securing his own property to call home, becoming a pet owner, and getting to know good people in the Castleford town, including a well-known and much-loved former Tiger.

“At first it was pretty hard because I was looking for a place to live, during lockdown I was staying with Jesse which was good, but last month I found and bought a place and so now I’m really settled in at my home. My off-field life is feeling good and I’ve made a few friends outside of rugby, some really good people outside of footy that add to my life. I see it like a circle if there is a little bit of something outside of the circle it might not be going full flow it might not be working. For a little while this year I wasn’t in full flow but at the moment everything is going well, I got my house, I got my little cat and I’ve got some a good group of friends in the team and good friends out of the team. I’d best mention Jake Webster, don’t want him to be upset with me!”