News

Posted: Thursday 26th November 2020

Turner joins Tigers for 2021

Castleford Tigers are excited to confirm the signing of Jordan Turner from Huddersfield Giants on a one-year contract.

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Oldham-born Turner brings plenty of experience to the Mend-A-Hose Jungle with nearly 300 top-flight appearances to his name and is expected to provide greater competition and depth in the centre position for the 2021 campaign, although he’s also able to cover in the halves and at loose forward.

After joining Salford as a talented 17-year old prospect from amateur side Waterhead Warriors, Turner made nearly 70 appearances for the Red Devils before taking his talents to Hull FC, where his impressive performances saw him make his England Knights debut in 2012.

A move to St Helens followed, where Turner racked up near 50 tries in 117 appearances and experienced his fair share of success, starting in St Helens’ Grand Final victory over Wigan in 2014. After a spell down under, he then returned to the UK with Huddersfield, where he has a been a regular in the Claret and Gold’s line-up, wearing squad number 4.

The versatile utility back will now want to stake his claim for a starting shirt in the Tigers line-up, telling castlefordtigers.com: “I didn’t have to think too much about making the decision after speaking to Daryl (Powell) and I’m really happy to be here. I’m excited about the coming season, the squad that we have got, and I think we can really push on at the higher end of the table at the end of next year.

“There’s some really good players here in the backline at Cas and I want to come in and add to that, there are some players that have been around for quite a few years and although I’ve been about a bit and played a lot of games I am still looking to learn off other people. I’m looking to learn off Daryl, looking to learn off people like Michael Shenton and I’m coming here to compete, I’m going to try my hardest to win a spot in the team.

 “One of the things that really excited me was the spine of the team such as the major coup of Niall Evalds who was pretty sought after. I think Niall probably could have had his choice of clubs and he chose to come to Cas, then Jake Trueman, Danny Richardson and Paul McShane, the spine is so strong and I think it’s one of the main things for going on and doing something well, when you’ve got a strong spine then everyone else going on around it sort of gets on board to be as good as they can be.

 “No matter what stage I’m at in my career I always like to learn but I would also like to pass on some knowledge to the younger lads here as well, I think Cas have some good young kids coming through and I want to help them out as much as I can.”

In a message to the Fords faithful Jordan reiterated his intent for the season.

“I’m hoping fans are back in by the time the season starts again, I’m coming here and I’m looking to compete and try as hard as I can to get myself in the starting team every week. Hopefully, you will see the best of me because I feel that I am at my peak now and I’ve come to the club at a good time. I’m in good shape to ride the wave with Cas and compete as hard as I can.”

Head Coach Daryl Powell meanwhile was excited that the signing will provide an immediate option in the centres and competition for places right across the park: “Once we realised that Cheyse Blair was definitely going to be a back-rower for us, we were short in the centre and I think this is an important signing to stiffen us up competition wise.

 “If you look across our squad we will have strength and depth in every position which is something which I think potentially we didn’t have last year at half-back and centre, areas where we got caught out a bit. So, Jordan will be an important signing for us.”

Castleford's Director of Rugby Jon Wells is looking forward to the experience that the former Grand Final winner will bring to the club, adding: “Jordan joins us for the 2021 season. He has huge experience at the top level having played over 300 first grade games and will apply pressure right across our backline.

 “We’re really pleased to welcome Jordan on board and we think that this could be an ideal pairing of player and club to bring out the best in Jordan and make a significant contribution to a really important year ahead for the Tigers.”