Daryl Powell has rested six key stars for Castleford’s fixture with St Helens, as his frustrations with the RFL continues.
England stars Zak Hardaker, Luke Gale and Mike McMeeken have been ommitted from the club’s 19-man squad to face Saints after Powell revealed his disgust at Super League’s second doubleheader of the year.
Powell launched a scathing attack on the RFL in his press conference this week, claiming he would protect his players if the governing body would not.
“The RFL are not going to look after the players so I’m going to do it – there’ll be a lot of changes to our team this week,” he said.
“We’re hardly halfway through the year and we’ve had two Friday-Monday turnarounds. When you play just one game it takes you a few days to even want to train. We were told we’ve got a six-day turnaround and that it shouldn’t be an issue but to have that after we play Friday and then Monday just is not enough.”
Michael Shenton, Mike McMeeken and Grant Millington have also been rested as the Tigers look set to name a young side to face Justin Holbrook’s side.
Among those called-up are teenage halfback Jake Trueman, who has been tipped to be one of the stars of his generation. Andy Lynch, Tuoyo Egodo, Kieran Gill, Jy Hitchcox, Will Maher and Luke Million have also been called up as Cas prepare to hand out up to four debuts in the clash on Sunday.
Castleford squad to face Saints: Eden, Gill, Egodo, Foster, Hitchcox, Holmes, Larroyer, Lynch, Maher, Massey, McShane, Million, Minikin, Moors, Monaghan, Roberts, Sene-Lefao, Truman, Webster.
