Daryl Powell focusing solely on Castleford Tigers performance

Castleford Tigers head coach Daryl Powell insists he is only focusing on his own side’s performance this afternoon, as they gear up to face an out-of-sorts Wakefield Trinity Wildcats side.

The two local rivals have had contrasting starts to the season; whilst the Tigers are challenging at the top of Super League, only Bradford’s points deduction is keeping the Wildcats out of the relegation places. However, despite an apparent gulf between the sides, Powell is only concerned about his own team, and refused to be drawn too much on the Wildcats’ performances.

“They came out of a game against St Helens where they ran them quite close, but they’ve found it a bit tougher since then. There’s nothing we can do about that, it’s simply about getting our performance right,” Powell said.

“You try pick out areas where you think you can cause them damage, but it’s about us doing the best job we can. I’m confident we’ll do that; it’s a derby game and it’ll be tough. Every time we’ve been to Wakefield it’s a tough game, and they’re difficult to beat.

“We certainly won’t be going into the game thinking it will be an easy effort.”

Powell also reflected on last Friday’s heartbreaking loss to St Helens, as the Tigers threw away a commanding lead to lose out to a late try by Saints’ Adam Swift. Despite that defeat though, Powell insisted there were plenty of positives to take from it into the busy Easter period.

He said: “In lots of ways it was a pretty positive night, but we didn’t get the points in the end. There were things for us to learn, and things for the refereeing department to learn. I’ve discussed those with the relevant people though and we’ve moved on.

“We should have closed the game out, and that period just after half-time where we turned the ball over cheaply was a bit of a killer. It’s gone though now, and all we can do is get back on track for this crucial period.”

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