Rangi Chase has been axed from Castleford’s 19-man squad to face Leeds Rhinos on Thursday night after the club confirmed he had been subject to an internal investigation.
The maverick halfback had started both of the club’s opening two games of the season, however, he will not feature in the club’s game with the Rhinos following an undisclosed incident which resulted in the investigation.
In a brief statement, the club CEO, Steve Gill, said: “Rangi was part of an investigation that has been dealt with internally by the club, neither Rangi Chase or the Castleford Tigers will make any further comment on this issue.”
The former England halfback has been replaced in the squad by Paul McShane, while Will Maher and triallist Alex Foster have also been included instead of Ben Roberts and Luke Million.
Head coach Daryl Powell did not discuss the reasoning behind Chase’s exclusion but stressed the importance of a further victory for the current league leaders.
“Friday night’s win at Warrington was a big win for us, to put a marker down like we did I thought was an outstanding team performance,” he said.
“Leeds have won two out of three and they have defended pretty well, they haven’t conceded a lot of points and they are basing a lot of what they are doing on a really tough defensive mindset. They have got good players everywhere so you know they are a threat and there is always a big game in Leeds. For us we need to not get too carried away with all the pats on the back we are receiving. We can’t get dragged down by that, it’s important that we are focused, and make sure that our game is really good.”
