Castleford Tigers head coach Daryl Powell admits the prospect of squaring up against the very best sides in the NRL is an incredible prospect – after details of a revamped World Club Challenge were announced on Thursday.
Should the Tigers finish top of Super League – which is still a possibility, especially after St Helens’ defeat to Warrington on Thursday night – then they would be guaranteed a place in the newly named World Club Series event, which will see three Super League teams square off against three of their NRL counterparts.
And Powell admitted that the opportunity to face off against the likes of Brisbane or South Sydney would be “awesome” – but he refused to get too carried away, with a lot of games still to play between now and the end of the season.
“It would be great, but we won’t look too far ahead,” Powell said. “For us it’s about giving ourselves an opportunity to play in those sorts of tournaments if they are available. It’s what we can do in the play-offs and how high we can finish, but if we can get our job done against Wakefield and Catalan the permutations are interesting.
“The opportunity in front of us is pretty special; the prospect of facing South Sydney or Brisbane Broncos here is awesome.”