Faulkner reflects on Featherstone contest

Castleford Tigers Women put in an improved performance during their last outing at the Millennium Stadium last weekend and despite the defeat to Featherstone, Tigresses Head Coach Matty Faulkner is taking the positives from a determined display.

The Fords were no strangers to coming up against Rovers as they faced each other in their previous match in the Challenge Cup back in April and Faulkner explained that the closer scoreline this time around shows that his side are moving in the right direction.

“The scoreline definitely isn’t a reflection of the performance because I thought all the girls worked really hard across the pitch.

“A lot of them stayed on the pitch for a lot longer than they should have done because we were a bit light on bodies today, but their effort was superb. The application and attitude across the team was absolutely spot on because I couldn’t have asked more of them.

“In the space of four weeks, as you can see by the scoreline, we have improved. They were the last team we played in the Challenge Cup, and we are already making the right improvements.”

Castleford were only able to take a squad of 16 due to a number of injuries in the Tigresses pack but they stood up to be counted throughout the contest and the Head Coach indicated that the lack of fresh bodies impacted how they were able to play it the second half.

“We were down to 16 players today but that’s part of the game because people pick up injuries. The girls knew it was going to be tough going into the game and I think in the first half we showed what we can do.

“We made a couple of errors and they capitalised on them but obviously in the second half we were light on bodies and energy.”

Loose forward Maisie Lumb put in a standout performance and a full shift of 80 minutes to claim the Coaches Player of the Match.

Faulkner spoke highly of his front rower’s display and also picked out Courtney Evans for her fantastic work in an unfamiliar position at full-back.

“I thought Maise was outstanding. She carried really hard and hit some really good lines off our halfbacks. She was nonstop in defence, and you can tell the calibre of player she is.

“She’s been out there for the full 80 minutes in the middle of the park which is hard to do at any level. Courtney was outstanding at the back. Defensively she was really hard to get passed and she’s fresh to the position, but she put herself in there and did herself proud.”

The Tigresses’ next Women’s Super League fixture is on June the 12th when they travel to Odsal to face Bradford Bulls for their second away match on the spin and Faulkner confirmed that he is hopeful of having more of the girls back available to boost the squad for their next contest.

“Bradford Bulls is the next challenge for us, and we are definitely looking forward to that. We should have a few more options for selection on the day and we will be looking to improve again when that game comes around.”